(News Bulletin 247) – Slightly up Thursday evening at the close, the Paris Stock Exchange ends a series of three sessions in the red. The CAC 40 resisted despite disappointing US GDP figures in the first quarter and gained 0.2% on Thursday evening.

A small increase, but an increase nonetheless. The Paris Stock Exchange manages for the first time this week to end its race in the green in a cloud of company results and after the publication of a major statistic in the United States.

The day after a drop of 0.9%, the CAC 40 resumed some colors to progress by 0.23% to 7,483.84 points Thursday evening. The news remains particularly dense in these last days of April, on both sides of the Atlantic.

Statistics expected from the market, US GDP was less robust than expected in the first quarter, according to the first estimate issued by the Commerce Department. Over the first three months of the year, GDP growth stood at 1.1% at an annualized rate against 2.6% over the last three months of 2022 and growth of 2% expected by the consensus.

This report nevertheless highlighted the resilience of consumption and higher than expected inflation. Besides, jobless claims proved to be lower than economists’ projections. These signals bear witness to the relative resilience of the US economy, which should prompt the US Federal Reserve (Fed) to raise its key rate next week.

Pending this possible tightening of the US central bank, investors will take note on Friday of the PCE index, the Fed’s preferred gauge for measuring inflation.

On the corporate front, Meta jumped 14% in session, after reporting better-than-expected results in both earnings and revenue.

In Paris, the operators also had to dissect a rain of results.

STMicro drop

Schneider Electric (+3.9%) finished at the top of the CAC 40. The electrical equipment manufacturer raised its profit and profitability targets for 2023 after a dynamic first quarter in terms of sales.

On the other hand, STMicroelectronics slowed the progression of the Parisian star index (-8.7%), despite good quarterly results. Investors are concerned about the evolution of the group’s gross margin in the second half.

TotalEnergies returned 2.6% as its first quarter results came in just in line with expectations. The group has also decided to sell its oil sands operations in Canada to Suncor Energy.

Soitec for its part dropped 15.4%, the departure of a key man, the director of operations, seizing up the market.

Still on the SBF 120, this Thursday’s box was signed SES-imagotag (+33.9%) which benefits from a substantial strengthening of its partnership with the distribution giant Walmart which should lead to hundreds of millions of euros of income. The American group must also obtain subscription warrants which could grant it 10% of the capital of the French company.

On other markets, the euro was down slightly by 0.2% at 1.1022 dollars. Oil prices are amorphous. North Sea Brent crude for June delivery gained 0.2% to $77.89 a barrel, while New York-listed WTI for the same maturity climbed 0.3% to $74.56 a barrel.