(News Bulletin 247) – The flagship index of the Paris Bourse ended slightly lower on Tuesday after Jerome Powell told the Senate that the final level of interest rates could be higher than expected.

The CAC 40 bends but does not really yield. The Parisian index finally ended down 0.46% at 7,339.27 points on Tuesday.

Like all the other stock exchanges, the Paris market was a little heckled by the statements of the President of the Federal Reserve (Fed), Jerome Powell, who was heard by the Senate Banking Committee.

The central banker hardened his tone, seeming to indicate to the market that he should potentially wait for larger rate hikes than he had anticipated so far.

Revised expectations

“The most recent economic data is stronger than expected, suggesting that the final level of interest rates is likely to be higher than expected,” he said, quoted by AFP.

These remarks led investors to revise their expectations. After his intervention, market participants now attribute a 50% probability to a rate hike of 50 basis points, or 0.5 percentage points, from the Federal Reserve at its meeting on March 22. . Previously, he expected more than 70% on a more moderate rise of 25 basis points.

These statements also propelled the dollar, the euro falling 0.9% against the US currency to 1.0592 dollars.

Defensive values ​​stand out

In terms of stocks, defensive actions on the CAC 40 slowed down the decline in the index. Danone gained 1.1%, Thales took 0.8% and Sanofi 0.9%. The pharmaceutical group has also announced that the Food and Drug Administration, the American health authority, has accepted the application for an indication for Dupixent, the French group’s flagship drug, for the treatment of chronic spontaneous urticaria in adults. and the teenager from 12 years old.

On the side of smaller caps, the green chemist Global Bioenergies lost 19% after announcing a capital increase with a target amount of 7.5 million euros to finance its development.

Conversely, Genomic Vision jumped 68% after announcing the launch of software based on artificial intelligence, which aims to automate the detection and quantification of fluorescent signals on combed DNA molecules. that is, placed on slides to be visualized and analyzed.

Oil retreats, scalded by Powell’s comments and by the rise in the dollar which penalizes raw materials. As their prices are denominated in dollars, a rise in the greenback makes their purchases more expensive for importers whose currency is not the American currency. The North Sea Brent contract for delivery in May fell 1.8% to 84.67 dollars a barrel while that for April on WTI listed in New York lost 2.1% to 78.77 dollars a barrel.