PARIS (Reuters) – The main European stock markets are moving in small variations on Wednesday morning, with caution being called for before the monetary policy announcements from the US Federal Reserve (Fed) in the evening.

In Paris, the CAC 40 took 0.39% to 7,318.91 points around 07:50 GMT. In London, the FTSE 100 advances by 0.14% and in Frankfurt, the Dax gains 0.22%.

The EuroStoxx 50 index rose by 0.32%, the FTSEurofirst 300 by 0.27% and the Stoxx 600 by 0.31%.

Futures on Wall Street point to a slight rise for the Standard & Poor’s 500 and the Nasdaq, which both hit 14-month highs on Tuesday, while the Dow could fall 0.1%.

Investors are cautious ahead of the publication at 6:00 p.m. GMT of the Fed’s decisions the day after a session in the green of the equity markets marked by the reinforcement of the scenario of a temporary pause in the rate hike of the central bank .

While consumer prices (CPI) in the United States slowed more than expected in May, they note that the “core CPI” remains high, which makes the trajectory of rates in the months to come uncertain.

Reflecting this uncertainty, the money markets are counting with a probability of more than 90% on a status quo on rates on Wednesday but forecast with a probability of more than 60% a resumption of the increase in the cost of credit next month, a sign that the current monetary tightening cycle is far from over.

On the stock market, the positive trend on the Stoxx 600 is led by the defensive compartment of real estate (+1.45%), while new technologies (-0.11%) are victims of profit taking.

In Paris, Casino jumped 15.3%, the distributor having announced on Wednesday that it had received a proposal from the trio of businessmen made up of Xavier Niel, Matthieu Pigasse and Moez-Alexandre Zouari for a reinforcement of its equity until an amount of 1.1 billion euros.

In its wake, the distribution sector is well oriented with in particular Rallye, the parent company of the Saint-Etienne group, which soars by 24.73%, while Carrefour takes 1.32%.

Elsewhere in Europe, Logitech (-8.69%) suffered one of the biggest drops in the Stoxx 600 after the announcement of the departure of its CEO Bracken Darrell, while the British group Entain, owner of the betting company Ladbrokes, plunged 9.98% after the announcement of the takeover of the Polish group STS Holdings for 750 million pounds (695 million euros).

(Written by Claude Chendjou, edited by Blandine Hénault)

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