PARIS (Reuters) – The main European stock markets are moving on weak variations on Friday morning, in a hesitant session where investors continue to digest the results of companies before the monetary policy meetings of several major central banks, scheduled for next week.

In Paris, the CAC 40 nibbles 0.03% to 7,387.33 points around 08:10 GMT. In London, the FTSE 100 is stable. In Frankfurt, the Dax advanced by 0.56% thanks in particular to the automotive sector, while China announced new measures on Friday to stimulate car sales.

The EuroStoxx 50 index rose 0.28%, the FTSEurofirst 300 gained 0.01% and the Stoxx 600 0.08%.

Futures contracts on Wall Street predict a rise of 0.16% for the Dow Jones, 0.12% for the Standard & Poor’s 500 and 0.21% for the Nasdaq the day after a session in dispersed order marked by disappointment in the technology compartment with in particular the results of Tesla and Netflix.

In Europe, the “tech” sector, down 1.2%, is at this stage the biggest weekly drop on the Stoxx 600.

SAP, which on Thursday lowered its annual outlook for its sales in cloud computing, dropped 5.16%.

Thales fell 3.74% despite raising its organic growth target for annual revenue, while Dassault Aviation (-8.36%) was penalized after the drop in revenue in the first half.

Sartorius Stedim Biotech, up 4.42%, however, benefited from the confirmation of its annual forecasts.

Ubisoft (+4.05%), one of the biggest increases in the SBF 120, is sought after net bookings (“net bookings”) above expectations in the first quarter.

At the top of the Stoxx 600, the media sector (+0.88%) is driven in particular by Vivendi (+1.64%) and Viaplay, whose share price jumped 26.66% thanks to Canal+’s acquisition of 12% in the leader in pay-TV in the Nordic countries.

At the bottom of the Stoxx 600, Swedish steelmaker SSAB plunged 14.49% after missing quarterly profit expectations, while Swiss pharmaceuticals supplier Lonza fell 8.65% as its annual forecast was lowered.

In terms of economic indicators, retail sales in the United Kingdom rose stronger than expected in June (+0.7%), while the Bank of England (BoE) is due to make its monetary policy decisions in two weeks.

Those from the US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan are expected next week, when the PMI activity indicators in Europe and the first estimate of US gross domestic product (GDP) for the second quarter of the United States will also be published.

(Written by Claude Chendjou, edited by Kate Entringer)

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