(News Bulletin 247) – The CAC 40 is close to equilibrium on Monday at mid-session, navigating between two waters. If TotalEnergies is propelled by the rise in oil prices, luxury is falling.

The Paris Stock Exchange starts the week without much enthusiasm. The CAC 40 thus yielded 0.09% at mid-session on Monday, to 7263.97 points.

Now that the drama on the US debt ceiling is over, investors have plenty of time to focus on the next monetary policy decisions, in particular that of the US Federal Reserve (Fed), on June 13 and 14.

The employment figures published on Friday do not really help them to anticipate a real trend. While job creations have turned out to be significantly higher than expected, the unemployment rate has risen, and job destructions have also been significant.

oil goes up

“All in all, despite their mixed nature, these statistics continue to show a tight labor market, giving no hope of a rapid reduction in inflationary pressures. But, for us, they should not change the opinion of many members of the Fed Monetary Policy Committee to take a break at next week’s meeting,” said Sebastian Paris Horvitz of La Banque Postale Asset Management.

In terms of values, TotalEnergies carries the index with an increase of 1.2%, driven by the rise in oil prices. Moreover, the oil services groups CGG and Vallourec, too, are up sharply by 1% and 1.7% respectively.

Oil is indeed gaining ground following Saudi Arabia’s decision to cut production by 1 million barrels a day next month. However, this measure may not be enough to create a real upward current on the raw material, while many investors have adopted a bearish position, due to the degraded economic situation.

On the other side, luxury is falling back, probably suffering from profit taking. LVMH, Hermès and Kering shares all three fell between 0.9% and 1.2%.

Excluding the CAC 40, Eramet won 2.6%, driven by the initiation of Stifel’s coverage on the purchase.

On foreign exchange, the euro dropped 0.2% against the dollar at 1.0694 dollar.