(News Bulletin 247) – The Paris Stock Exchange was not enthusiastic about the latest inflation figures in the United States for the month of April. Down 0.5% on Wednesday evening, the CAC 40 is increasingly deviating from the threshold of 7400 points.

The devil is in the details… Feverish before the big meeting of the week, the Paris Stock Exchange remained nervous after the announcement of the latest inflation figures in the United States. Published at 2:30 p.m., consumer prices rose 4.9% year on year in April, compared to 5.0% in March. This is better than expected by the economists surveyed by the wall street journal which for their part were counting on inflation at 5% over one year in April.

Core inflation, ie expressed excluding food and energy, remained stable over one month, and slowed to 5.5% over one year, in line with market expectations.

On first reading, the direction of prices in the United States is therefore heading in the right direction. It was the hot interpretation of the markets. But taking a closer look at the report delivered by the Department of Labor, prices rose again to 0.4% month on month in April, against a monthly increase of 0.1% in March.

Final result, the CAC 40 moves away over the sessions from 7400 points. The Parisian index still drops 0.49% at the close on Wednesday at 7361.20 points the day after a decline of 0.60%.

The green bank at the top of the CAC 40

As far as values ​​are concerned, the results of companies find various echoes in the market. Alstom, which published the results of its 2022-2023 financial year ended in March, limited its decline to 2.4%, the group having also seen its credit rating lowered by one notch by Moody’s. The railway equipment manufacturer has also postponed its medium-term profitability and cash generation objectives by one year.

Conversely, Crédit Agricole SA gained 5%, driven by results well above expectations in the first quarter.

For its part, Casino suffered a new warning shot on the stock market and plunged 6% while S&P lowered its credit rating by two notches and is worried about a payment default which it considers more likely.

On the other markets, the euro grabbed 0.10% against the dollar at 1.0976 dollars. Oil prices are on the decline. The July contract on Brent from the North Sea fell 1.1% to 76.62 dollars a barrel while that of June on WTI listed in New York fell 1.3% to 72.72 dollars a barrel.