(News Bulletin 247) – For this first session in May, the Paris Stock Exchange is feeling the pinch. The CAC 40 fell by 1.45%, back below 7,400 points before a week under the sign of central banks.

The Paris Stock Exchange begins the month of May down sharply. Down 0.5% at lunchtime, the CAC 40 accelerated its fall to yield 1.45% and thus return below 7,400 points to 7,383.20 points. The Parisian star index has decided to follow the stock market adage Sell ​​In May and Go Away

Operators are walking on eggshells ahead of a week that will be dominated by central banks. The European Central Bank (ECB) and the US Federal Reserve (Fed) are holding their monetary policy meeting in the coming days. The Fed begins its own on Tuesday, and will complete it on Wednesday evening. The market is widely anticipating a 25 basis point (0.25 percentage point) hike in key rates from the Fed on Wednesday. The whole question will be whether this is not the latest increase in the US central bank’s monetary tightening cycle.

For Deutsche Bank, the Fed is expected to signal that a further rate hike in June at its next meeting is an option on the table. Without committing firmly to this path. On the side of the European Central Bank, the markets expect a seventh rate hike, but it is the extent of the increase that remains unresolved.

Moreover, inflation started to rise again in April in the euro zone, putting an end to a series of five consecutive monthly declines. An acceleration in prices which pleads for “a rate hike of 25 basis points” on the occasion of the meeting of the institution on Thursday, explains Ulrike Kastens, economist at DWS quoted by AFP.

The central bank of Australia has already taken this path, taking the markets on the wrong foot. Against all expectations, it indeed raised its main interest rate on Tuesday by a quarter of a point because of inflation still deemed too high.

And, in addition to these two meetings, investors will also have to dissect the figures on American employment, which will be published on Friday afternoon. Obviously, the results of companies will still be numerous this week, with in particular Apple on the menu or Airbus and BNP Paribas in France.

Sanofi in poor shape, Vilmorin pushes upwards

As for values, the CAC 40 was also pulled down by Sanofi (-2.8%) which suffered from a degradation of advice on the sale by Deutsche Bank.

On the smallest capitalizations, Vilmorin jumped by more than 45%, the price of the seed company being based on the price of the public offer to purchase from its majority shareholder with a view to its withdrawal from the listing.

Medincell took 12.6%, driven by the approval of a drug to fight schizophrenia in the United States.

On the other hand, McPhy fell by 9.8%, penalized by the suspension of a large order in Guyana.

On the other markets, the euro lost 0.2% against the dollar at 1.0988 dollars. Oil prices are sinking, concerns about a possible global recession are weighing on the trend. The June North Sea Brent contract fell 4.10% to $76.06 a barrel, while the New York-listed May WTI contract fell 4.4% to $72.36 a barrel.