(News Bulletin 247) – The CAC 40 fell by 0.44% on Thursday, while bond rates rose, ahead of the speech of the President of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, Friday afternoon. Although Nvidia posted impressive results, its rise on Wall Street falls into line.

The market remains tense this weekend. A sign of this nervousness, the Paris Stock Exchange failed to maintain its rise in the morning. The CAC 40 thus closed down 0.44% at 7214.46 points on Thursday.

The dantesque results of Nvidia, which beat all expectations both for its second quarter results and for its third quarter forecasts, supported risk appetite for a time. But this boost did not last since even the action of the graphics card manufacturer fell into line on Wall Street at the end of the European session, taking only 1.8%, while the title jumped 6.6 % in post-closing trading on Wednesday evening.

The rise in bond rates may have weighed on the market during the session. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond rose to 4.216% from 4.194% on Wednesday night. That of the two-year bond, more dependent on monetary policy expectations, is flirting with 5% (4.997%) against 4.95% on Wednesday evening.

>> Access our exclusive graphic analyses, and enter into the confidence of the Trading Portfolio

Powell on the horizon

This rate hike comes after mixed US indicators. New weekly jobless claims reached 230,000, less than the 240,000 expected by economists. Durable goods orders for July fell more than expected, by 5.2% over one month, against a consensus of -4%, according to Bloomberg. This, however, reflects a significant backlash from aircraft orders, which had been buoyant the previous month.

Investors were also able to show a wait-and-see attitude, before Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Jerome Powell spoke on Friday afternoon at the Jackson Hole symposium, and in an unattractive macroeconomic context.

“Recent data out of Europe is worrisome to say the least, if not downright bad and recession-worthy. The U.S. is still in a strong position, but there are areas of weakness and if rates of interest remain high for longer, new cracks could appear”, summarizes Craig Erlam of Oanda.

Air Liquide resisted

As for values, STMicroelectronics suffered the largest drop in the CAC 40 (-2.48%) ahead of Renault (-2.4%).

Air Liquide resisted (+0.5%) thanks to an increase in buying advice from Berenberg.

Maisons du Monde lost 3.1% after announcing the departure of its financial director.

On the smallest caps Aures Technologies (-35.6%) indicated that it anticipates further losses for the 2023 financial year and announced that it has engaged in “very advanced discussions” with industrial partners so that they “provide it with adequate and operational synergies”.

On the other markets, the euro lost 0.25% against the dollar at 1.0837 dollar. Oil prices are falling. The October contract on the North Sea Bent lost 0.3% to 82.94 dollars a barrel, while that of the same expiry on the WTI quoted in New York fell 0.3% also to 78.68 dollars on barrel.