(News Bulletin 247) – The CAC 40 remained on the ropes on Thursday, still struck by the Fed’s desire to raise its rates. For its part, the Bank of England carried out a rate hike that was stronger than expected by economists.

Gloom remains on the Paris Stock Exchange. The CAC 40 chained this Thursday a fourth session of consecutive declines, yielding 0.79% to 7203.28 points.

The Parisian index has been suffering for several sessions and has been weighed down by statements deemed “hawkish” (restrictive) from the Chairman of the American Federal Reserve (Fed), Jerome Powell. In hearings before both chambers of the US Congress on Wednesday and Thursday, the central banker spoke and indicated that further rate hikes were in sight. However, he ruled on Thursday that the central bank was “close to the destination on rates” and that the Fed should “act cautiously”, according to comments relayed by Reuters.

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The Bank of England surprises

Apart from the Fed, the market also had to dissect the announcement by the Bank of England, which raised its key rates by 50 basis points (ie 0.5%) to counter inflation that is still very high in the United Kingdom.

“The 0.5% (to) 5% interest rate hike decided today by the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) was bigger than most commentators While the higher-than-expected headline and core inflation figures reignited debate over the rate of increase, most observers expected a more gradual rise from 0 .25%,” said Andrew Jones, portfolio manager at Janus Henderson.

“Despite today’s news that inflation is expected to remain elevated over the next few months, further increases remain very likely,” he added.

SES-imagotag attacked by a short seller

On values, so few titles have evolved in the green on the CAC 40, the largest drop, TotalEnergies, remained relatively contained (-2.5%).

Casino lost 3.8% after announcing the sale of the balance of its stake in the Brazilian Assai as well as a series of measures to generate cash.

Satellite operator SES gained 7.8% after announcing the end and failure of its merger project with rival Intelsat.

Not to be confused, the action of SES-imagotag, for its part, is suspended pending a press release. The company is attacked by a short seller, Gotham City Research, which accuses it of having artificially inflated its revenues and results.

Eramet lost 2.7%. Oddo BHF lowered its target price to 126 euros, against 137 euros previously. “Like other mining companies, Eramet is facing a difficult market context with prices dragged down by the disappointing post-Covid reopening in China”, explains the research office, which does not expect a clear improvement in this environment. market in the second half. This led it to revise downwards its forecast for adjusted gross operating income (Ebitda) for the full year to 905 million euros against 1.1 billion euros anticipated by the company.

Maisons du Monde lost 8.9% as TP ICAP Midcap went short on the case, after analyzing Banque de France data on furniture sales in May.

On the other markets, the euro dropped 0.3% against the dollar at 1.096 dollars. Oil prices are down sharply. The North Sea Brent contract for August delivery fell 3.6% to $74.60 a barrel, while the same-maturity WTI contract listed in New York lost 3.6% to $69.92 a barrel. barrel.