(News Bulletin 247) – The Paris Stock Exchange keeps pace and closes in the green for the third consecutive session. The CAC 40 takes 1% but still refuses the obstacle of 7300 points, Wednesday evening.

The Paris Stock Exchange has not weakened, quite the contrary. The CAC 40 confirmed its initial gains to close up 0.98% at the gates of 7300 points on Wednesday, to 7286.32 points on Wednesday evening. For the moment the Parisian place is having a perfect week, with three out of three sessions in the green.

However, central bankers do not intend to ease off on rate hikes intended to stem inflation. For the European Central Bank, underlying inflation does not show enough tangible signs of a decline to consider a pause in its monetary tightening.

In the United States, the tone is somewhat similar. The US Federal Reserve, through its chairman, Jerome Powell, does not rule out two consecutive rate hikes. Especially since the latest indicators published in the United States will not push the American institution to show leniency in its monetary policy.

But this time, investors are taking these favorable signals for the US economy as good news, since they are dispelling the specter of a recession in the world’s largest economy.

“After a few days of markets adjusting downwards, risk taking has returned with force on both sides of the Atlantic, with sharp rises in stock markets. After restrictive messages from central banks over the past two weeks, market operators, particularly in the United States, seemed to be reassured by the latest economic figures which came out better than expected”, underlines Sebastian Paris Horvitz, of LBPAM.

“Risk appetite has returned to markets over the past 24 hours, helped by a string of strong US data that eased fears of an impending recession after weaker data over the past week,” abound the strategists of Deutsche Bank.

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Both new home sales and household confidence in the United States emerged on Tuesday above economists’ expectations. In Europe, this Wednesday, household morale in France improved slightly over the month of June. Conversely, the forecast of German consumer sentiment for July, established by the GfK barometer, contracted for the first time in nine months.

Positive crossroads with Morgan Stanley

In terms of values, the CAC 40 was carried by Carrefour (+3%). Morgan Stanley began monitoring the stock with a recommendation to “overweight”, the equivalent of “buying” the US bank.

The Orpea action is suspended at the company’s request and while its creditors and shareholders are called upon to vote on the company’s safeguard plan.

At the top of the SBF 120, we find Atos which took over 4.6% while the board of directors of the IT group rejected several indicative offers for Tech Foundations, the division which brings together the historical activities of Atos. This was stated by its chairman, Bertrand Meunier, at the group’s general meeting, according to statements reported by Reuters.

On the smallest caps, the specialist in hygiene and industrial maintenance products Orapi jumped 24.4% following the announcement of the sale of a block of 34.8% and 50.7% of the capital held by the chairman of the supervisory board, Guy Chifflot in Groupe Paredes (a company comparable to Orapi). The price shows a premium of 29.2% compared to the last quoted price. Groupe Paredes plans, once this block buyout is finalized, to launch a takeover bid. The investment company specializing in SMEs Kartesia, which owns 29.8% of the capital, did not accept the offer from Groupe Paredes and submitted a competing offer to Guy Chifflot, who refused it.

On the other markets, the euro lost 0.5% against the dollar at 1.0912 dollars. Oil accelerates higher after US inventories. The contract on Brent from the North Sea for delivery in August took 2% to 74 dollars a barrel while that of the same term on WTI listed in New York rose 2.3% to 69.28 dollars a barrel.