(News Bulletin 247) – The consumer price index in the United States slowed its rise significantly in May, in line with economists’ expectations. This bodes well for a pause in interest rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve, which began its meeting on Tuesday.

It was not until inflation in the United States that the Paris Stock Exchange took off a little. The CAC 40 thus ended up 0.52% at 7287.81 points on Tuesday’s session.

The consumer price index in the United States, the best-known gauge for measuring rising prices, came out right in line with expectations. The overall figure thus reached 4% in May over one year, marking a sharp decline compared to April (4.9%), and reaching its lowest level since March 2021. The “core” figure, c i.e. excluding food and energy prices, stood at 5.3% over one year, again exactly in line with the expectations of economists polled by the Wall Street Journal.

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Towards a pause for the Fed

These figures are crucial as they are published as the US Federal Reserve (Fed) began its monetary policy meeting on Tuesday, and will make its decision on its interest rates on Wednesday.

“The data shows that inflation is slowing down and moving in the right direction,” said Naeem Aslam of Zaye Capital. “Put simply, it looks like there is less wood to cut for the Fed as inflation starts to cool,” he adds.

The Fed could actually “skip”, meaning that the central bank could skip this meeting before raising rates at the next one.

“With core inflation still high at 5.3% and core prices rising 0.4% m/m, the Fed is expected to signal tomorrow that it is ready to raise interest rates when the meeting of the Fed’s monetary policy committee at the end of July”, considers Capital Economics.

More generally, the market is a little more positive on the economic situation. “Today, it looks like investors are back to the baseline scenario of a ‘soft landing’. The speed of disinflation is high enough to satisfy central banks, put in terminal rates and ensure “a brutal recession can be avoided, and considered only as an extreme risk”, judges the investment company Muzinich & Co.

Teleperformance continues to rise

As for values, Teleperformance chained a third consecutive session of increases of more than 3% (+3.8%).

Saint-Gobain advanced 3.1% after announcing an agreement to buy the company Building Products of Canada, which produces roofing shingles for the residential sector and wood fiber insulation panels, for around 925 million euros. euros.

Ubisoft lost 1.7% erasing part of its gains the day before (+3%) after the group held a conference deemed convincing on its next major video game releases.

Note that on Wall Street, Apple is losing ground (0.2%) after reaching a record closing price on Monday evening. UBS bank lowered its “buy” recommendation to “neutral”, citing in particular weak iPhone sales in Europe, the United States and China.

On other markets, the euro advanced 0.3% against the dollar to 1.0794 dollar. Oil contracts are progressing strongly. The August contract on Brent from the North Sea rose 3.3% to 74.24 dollars a barrel while that for July on WTI listed in New York rose 3.5% to 69.44 dollars a barrel. Black gold prices are benefiting from the lower rate of the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank.