(News Bulletin 247) – The trend remains hesitant in Paris. The CAC 40 closed once again down, this time below 7400 points. Vallourec was wanted after its quarterly results when Elior suffered the wrath of investors after it disappointed on its margin forecasts.

For several sessions, the Paris Stock Exchange has clearly lacked enthusiasm. And today’s session confirms this trend. Anesthetized, the CAC 40 fell 0.09% and returned to the wire, below 7400 points to 7399.44 points.

On Wall Street, the mood of the markets is tinged with cautious optimism. Investors are expressing timid hope for a possible agreement between Republicans and Democrats on raising the US debt ceiling. The American indices are pointing up slightly, varying between 0.3% and 0.4% at the close of the European markets.

However, no agreement could be reached after a meeting on Tuesday evening. Another meeting must take place this week, to avoid a default of payment of the United States on June 1st.

“Nevertheless, what emerges from this meeting is that it was positive, that a bipartisan agreement can still be reached to avoid a default, and that the negotiation process has improved with President Biden appointing officials to work directly” , explains Patrick O’Hare of Briefing.com, quoted by AFP.

It is in this context that several members of the Federal Reserve (Fed) expressed themselves on Tuesday. And the tone was “on the whole, on the ‘hawkish (restrictive)’ side”, underlines Deutsche Bank. Loretta Mester, the president of the Cleveland Fed, for example, judged that the rates were not yet in sufficiently restrictive territory while Thomas Barkin, the president of the Richmond Fed for his part declared that he was “comfortable ” with rate increases, if it appears that this decision is the most judicious and necessary.

Which obviously does not delight markets convinced that the last rate hike by the Fed made at the beginning of the month must be the last.

Vallourec in good shape, Elior worried

On values, Vallourec ends up 8.55% after publishing quarterly results well above expectations.

Elior for its part collapsed by 22.8% after still suffering from inflation in the first half of its 2022-2023 financial year, which will end next September. The collective catering specialist has lowered its operating profitability target, now counting on the bottom of the range previously communicated, from 1.5% to 2%.

Ubisoft limits its decline to 1.1%. The video game publisher has as expected published poor annual results but also delivered disappointing revenue indications for its first quarter from April to the end of June, and suggesting that no AAA games will be launched during this period.

Up 7.3% the day before, Lumibird rose 5.3%, still driven by its planned acquisition of the Italian and American subsidiaries of the transalpine company Prima Industrie.

On other markets, the euro fell 0.3% against the dollar to 1.0830 dollar. And oil rebounds more than 2%. The North Sea Brent contract for July delivery advanced 2.1% to $76.47 a barrel while New York-listed WTI advanced 2.2% to $72.45 a barrel.