PARIS (Reuters) – The main European stock markets moved in dispersed order at the start of the session on Thursday after the “minutes” of the Federal Reserve and under a deluge of results that were mostly well received.

In Paris, the CAC 40 gained 0.52% to 7,336.99 points at 08:38 GMT. In London, the FTSE 100 yielded 0.21%, while several stocks are traded ex-dividends, and in Frankfurt, the Dax advanced by 0.8%.

The EuroStoxx 50 index is up 0.73%, the FTSEurofirst 300 0.19% and the Stoxx 600 0.39%.

Europe’s major stock markets ended in the red on Wednesday as investors worried about continued rate hikes by major central banks as the economy continued to show resilience.

Unsurprisingly, the minutes of the Fed’s last meeting indicate that “almost all” of its officials agreed to slow the pace of interest rate hikes to a quarter point.

“Perhaps the most important conclusion was that some could have accepted a 50 basis point increase (…) Although this is consistent with some comments we have had recently, the meeting took place before reports on the employment and inflation, and retail sales data for January, which were all very strong,” Craig Erlam told OANDA.

Before the publication in the afternoon of the weekly jobless claims and the second estimate of the American GDP in the fourth quarter, the market will take notice of the final inflation figures for the euro zone in January.

On the stock market, the technology compartment posted the strongest growth in response to the good forecasts of the American chipmaker Nvidia, which gained 8% in out-of-hours trading on Wall Street.

As for the results of European companies, Bouygues (+2.99%), Axa (+2.46%), Sopra Steria (+6.92%), Eramet (+3.16%) or WPP (+5 .12%) are well oriented.

This is not the case for Essilorluxottica (-2.84%), with Jefferies analysts deploring more modest results in the fourth quarter of 2022 than in the first part of the year and the absence of 2023 forecasts, although this was anticipated.

Well ahead of the Stoxx 600, the engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce wins 18.03% after publishing an annual profit above expectations and says it plans to do even better this year.

Excluding results, Unibail takes 3.99% after the switch from “sell” to “neutral” by Goldman Sachs and Fnac Darty advances by 5.25% after information from BFM Business that the businessman Daniel Kretinsky would be ready to buy the participation of the first shareholder Ceconomy in the specialized distribution group.

A Ceconomy spokesperson said there had been no talks with the Czech investor about a possible deal.

(Laetitia Volga, edited by Blandine Hénault)

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