(News Bulletin 247) – The CAC 40 ended slightly lower on Wednesday after an undecided session, pending the “minutes” of the US Federal Reserve.

The Paris Stock Exchange hesitated throughout the session on Wednesday, struggling to rebound after falling the day before. Finally, the CAC 40 ended on a new decline of 0.12% following the drop of 1.1% on Tuesday.

The market has not regained its appetite for risk, before the publication, this Wednesday after the close of European stock markets, of the “minutes”, that is to say the minutes of the last monetary policy meeting of the US Federal Reserve (Fed).

In the meantime, the market has dissected the few statistics of the day, with in particular industrial production in the United States for the month of July which increased by 1% over one month, thus exceeding expectations.

“With the resilience of industrial activity in Europe fading, with growth in China virtually at a standstill and domestic demand for consumer goods likely to weaken due to the further rise in interest rates, the groups American manufacturers are likely to experience difficulties in the second half of this year”, nevertheless judges Capital Economics.

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In the United Kingdom, inflation eased, standing at 6.8% over one year in July against 7.9% in June.

These data were published in a market that remains worried about the Chinese economy, following a wave of disappointing economic indicators on Tuesday morning.

Separately, an analyst at ratings agency Fitch told CNBC that major U.S. banks could see their credit rating downgraded by one notch if their operating environment deteriorates. This weighed Tuesday night on the shares of banks, including JPMorgan and Bank of America.

As for values, the movements remained contained on the CAC 40, Hermès signing the largest increase (+0.9%) while Publicis showed the largest drop (-2.15%).

The oil company Maurel & Prom for its part recorded a good increase (+19.5%) after announcing the acquisition of Assala, a group operating in Gabon, a transaction which will allow the French company to significantly increase the size of its production.

On the other markets, the euro lost 0.06% against the dollar at 1.0901 dollar. Oil prices are amorphous. The North Sea Brent contract for October delivery rose 0.12% to $84.99 a barrel, while the September WTI contract on Wall Street climbed 0.05% to $81.03 a barrel.