The Paris Stock Exchange is trying to register its first increase in four sessions, but the rebound is weakened by the relapse of Wall Street in the first half hour.The Cac 40 index is also losing nearly 3% over the week, while the Federal Reserve is showing itself to be even more aggressive in its determination to counter inflation.Caution also remains in order two days before the first round of the French presidential election.
Around 4 p.m., the Bedroom 40 takes 0.69% to 6,506.26 points after a session high of 6,581.56 (+ 1.85%), in a business volume of 1.75 billion euros.Elsewhere in Europe, the Dax German gains 0.84% and the FTSE Eb Milanese 1.44%.In New York, the Dow Jones yields 0.10% and the Nasdaq Composite 1.37%.
Macron and Le Pen lead the 1er round ?
Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen would arrive at the top of the first round of the presidential election for which they are credited with respectively 26% and 22% of the voting intentions, according to the Opinon Way – Kéa Partners barometer for The echoes and Radio Classique.The outgoing president would win in the second round with 54% of the vote.
The narrowing of the gap between the two candidates has weighed in recent days because of Marine Le Pen’s pro-Putin and anti-European positions.” We expect Macron to be re-elected with a narrow lead over Le Pensays Lale Akoner, market strategist at BNY Mellon Investment Management.
A victory for Macron would be welcomed by the markets, which would mark the reduction of political uncertainty and the renewal of a pro-business government.“, she adds.
However, ” while the prospect of an exit from the euro zone seems more distant than during the 2017 campaign, the possibility of seeing Marine Le Pen come to power still constitutes a major risk for the financial markets notes Jonas Goltermann of Capital Economics.He further points out that ” the recent poll crunch in favor of far-right candidate Marine Le Pen ahead of the French presidential election is beginning to affect financial markets “.
Persistent tensions in the interest rate markets
As proof of this, the yield spread between the French 10-year bond and its German equivalent widened by more than 0.10 point to around 55 basis points due to the tightening of voting intentions.He also notes that the major French banks fell significantly more on the stock market than their European counterparts, while the euro lost ground against the dollar and other major currencies.
Across the Atlantic, the yield on the 10-year bond tightened by 6 basis points to 2.7125% as the US Federal Reserve prepares to reduce the size of its balance sheet by more than 1,000 billion dollars a year alongside several interest rate hikes, including a 50 basis point hike next month.
On the commodities front, the barrel of Brent from the North Sea is stabilizing just above 100 dollars.
The member countries of the International Energy Agency (IEA) will draw a total of 120 million barrels of oil from their stocks over six months to cope with soaring prices linked to the war in Ukraine.In addition, the European Union officially adopted this Friday a fifth package of sanctions against Russia, including a coal embargo, thus hitting the Russian energy sector for the first time.Some member countries believe that we must go even further by attacking Russian oil in particular.
Alstom and Sodexo carried by analysts
Biggest increase in the Cac 40, Alstom increased by 5%.The title is one of Citi’s “top picks”.
While the broker is cautious about the outlook for the European electrical equipment sector, it favors energy transition and automation.Citi is also “buy” on Rexel (+3%).
Sodexo advance of 5.8%, supported by a note from RBC, which went from “online performance” to “outperformance” on the title of the collective catering group.The analyst who wrote the note considers that the share’s discount compared to its competitors is exaggerated insofar as its business model should allow it to resist better than average to a more uncertain environment and potentially in the grip of stagflation..
Agricultural credit sells 0.3% having taken a 9.18% stake in the capital of Banco BPM, the third Italian bank resulting from the merger in 2017 of Banco Popolare and Banca Popolare di Milano.
In Milan, Banco BPM jumped 13%.
Biggest drop in the Cac 40, STMicroelectronics fell 1.1% in the wake of the Sox index of semiconductors in Philadelphia (-2.36%).In New York, Qualcomm, Nvidia and Micron Technology yielded 1.2%, 3.6% and 2.5% respectively..