(News Bulletin 247) – The Paris Stock Exchange paused on Monday, after rising 14% over the first half as a whole. The CAC 40 closed slightly down 0.2%. Tesla stands out on Wall Street after deliveries exceeded expectations in the second quarter.

The Paris Stock Exchange starts the week on a hesitant note, as statistics released today show a slowdown in economic activity in the euro zone after China, a little earlier in the day.

The CAC 40 closed slightly down 0.2%, back below 7400 points at 7386.70 points on Monday evening. On Friday, the Parisian market ended last week up 1.2%, which enabled it to achieve a performance of more than 14% in the first half of 2023.

A wave of relatively good indicators, notably the PCE index, the US Federal Reserve’s (Fed) preferred gauge for measuring inflation, fueled investor optimism in the last days of June.

This optimism is now giving way to caution in Paris, after the publication of manufacturing PMIs in the euro zone, which showed a stronger deterioration than initially estimated by the market. This indicator was preceded by a slowdown in manufacturing activity growth in China last month.

On the New York Stock Exchange, risk taking is limited before a holiday. Wall Street will be closed Tuesday for Independence Day, the national holiday marking the declaration of independence of the United States.

For this shortened session on the other side of the Atlantic, investors also learned of a contraction in manufacturing activity in the United States last month, to 46 points in June.

Note the rise of Tesla, whose record deliveries in the second quarter seduced Wall Street.

Luxury at a bargain, CDA all schuss

On the stock side, investors moved away from luxury after the publication of a deterioration in manufacturing activity in China (Hermès lost 1.7%, LVMH returned 1%) to buy group shares with multiple low valuations like Worldline which ended up 3.6%, TotalEnergies 1.8% and Société Générale 1.1%.

SES-imagotag ended down 2% while the group had gained 3% around the first exchanges after the company announced several commercial successes in the United States, including the winning of a contract with an American chain of convenience stores.

Casino limited its decline to 3.3% after plunging 20% ​​in early trading. The distributor asked for “grace periods” for not honoring certain debts.

Compagnie des Alpes ended up 5.8%, boosted by a rating from Stifel which initiated the monitoring of the stock with a recommendation to buy and a target price of 25 euros.

On the other markets, the euro is stable at 1.0920 dollars. Oil is rising as Russia said it would cut exports by 500,000 barrels a day from August. Saudi Arabia will extend the reduction of its production by 1 million barrels per day. This reduction, which will take effect in July, will continue in August. The September contract on Brent from the North Sea rose 0.6% to 75.86 dollars a barrel while that of August on WTI listed in New York took 0.55% to 71.03 dollars a barrel.