(News Bulletin 247) – The Paris Stock Exchange should open without any real trend on Wednesday morning, while no current element seems able to dictate a trajectory for the equity markets.

Around 8:15 a.m., the ‘future’ contract – June delivery – on the CAC 40 index advanced by 10 points to 7222.5 points, suggesting a minimal increase at the opening.

After spending most of yesterday’s session in the red, the Paris index had timidly raised its head in the last minutes of trading to finally grab 0.1% to 7209 points.

The day was again marked by an obvious weakness in the volumes traded, with just 2.5 billion euros traded, which testifies to the lack of conviction of the participants.

With no indicators or major results to eat during this sluggish week, investors are tempted to curb their appetite rather than risk losing their recent gains.

Since the start of the year, the CAC 40 has still posted an increase of more than 11%, but has fallen by nearly 5% since its historic high of April 21, at 7,577 points.

If the index has so far managed to defend the symbolic threshold of 7200 points, it will be difficult to start rising again in the absence of new catalysts, analysts warn.

“Over the next few weeks, the market should remain volatile awaiting clearer indications on future developments,” predicts Gilles Guibout, head of European equities at AXA IM.

“Economic first of all, to understand what could be the impact on the results of companies of the current slowdown”, underlines the strategist.

“Financial then, to see what will be the next decisions of the central banks as to the evolution of their monetary policy, in order to determine what the appropriate valuation multiple should be”, he adds.

While the stock markets are starting to show some signs of fatigue, particularly in the United States where the recent Nasdaq ‘rally’ tends to run out of steam, it seems for the moment very difficult to predict where the next factor of growth.

Apart from German industrial production and the US trade balance, no major indicator is on today’s agenda.

A small glimmer of hope from Asia could, however, shed light on the feeling of feverishness currently hovering over the markets.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index was up 1.7% on Wednesday at the end of the session, as investors bet on new stimulus measures in China to support the fragile post-Covid economic recovery.

On Wall Street, the main indices ended with symbolic gains Tuesday evening in a directionless market in the absence of economic indicators.

At the final bell, the Dow Jones was close to balance while the Nasdaq nibbled 0.4% and the S&P 500 gained 0.2%.

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