(News Bulletin 247) – The Parisian index ended down more than 1% this session of August 15 in low volumes. Disappointing indicators in China weighed on the market, even if the good performance of retail sales in the United States limited the breakage in the afternoon.

The Paris Bourse was on track for a bright red session on Tuesday August 15, a day logically marked by low volumes due to the public holiday in France.

The CAC 40 finally ended on a significant but not catastrophic drop of 1.1%, to 7267.70 points.

Poor statistics in China weighed on the trend, while the previous day’s session had been penalized by fears about the financial situation of Chinese property developer Country Garden Holdings.

“We were treated to a fresh round of economic data which once again fell short of expectations. For example, Chinese industrial production in July was up only +3.7% YoY (against +4.3% expected), while retail sales fell to +2.5% (against +4.0% expected)”, develops Deutsche Bank. For their part, loans to households fell last month to their lowest level since 2009.

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Strong US retail sales

These indicators were published after the Chinese central bank decided to cut one of its benchmark rates by 15 basis points (0.15%) “which constitutes the largest reduction since 2020”, notes Edward Moya of Oanda.

“The data following the rate cut was not very encouraging for the rest of the year and will force the authorities to continue easing,” he continues, judging that the situation in China “is much worse. than originally thought”.

However, while the CAC 40 seemed to be heading for a decline that could have exceeded 1.5%, the fall stabilized somewhat in the afternoon. An American indicator, namely retail sales for the month of July, was reassuring, with an increase over one month of 0.7%, against 0.4% expected by economists polled by the Wall Street Journal.

Which suggests that “monetary policy tightening still has a remarkably small impact on real economic activity, but that’s not necessarily a problem for the Fed as the evidence continues to mount. suggest that inflationary pressures are rapidly fading,” Capital Economics analysis.

Worthwhile luxury

In this unattractive context, the entire CAC 40 ended in the red, but with relatively moderate declines. Teleperformance, which posted the biggest drop in the index, lost “only” 2.4%.

Highly dependent on macroeconomic news, and China in particular, an important area of ​​growth for them, luxury groups suffered releases. L’Oréal lost 1.7%, despite Bernstein’s recommendation being raised to “outperformance”. LVMH dropped 1.5%, Hermès 1%, Kering also 1%.

Danone fell 1.8% as Bernstein went from “market performance” to “underperformance” on the stock.

On other markets, the euro gained 0.2% against the dollar at 1.0926 dollars. Oil prices fell sharply, also weighed down by the sluggish Chinese economy, synonymous with concern for demand. The October contract on North Sea Brent fell 1.8% to 84.68 dollars a barrel while the September contract on Wall Street-listed WTI lost 2.2% to 80.72 dollars a barrel.