(News Bulletin 247) – The Paris Stock Exchange is expected to fall again on Thursday at the opening before several economic indicators which could reinforce the current concerns of investors, or on the contrary allay them.
Around 8:15 a.m., the futures contract on the CAC 40 index – delivery at the end of September – fell 21 points to 7181 points, suggesting an opening well below the important support of 7200 points.
After several sessions marked by fears of seeing the rise in oil prices encourage a resurgence of inflation and precipitate new rate hikes, the day will be punctuated by a series of statistics.
Expected at the end of the morning, GDP growth in the euro zone could finally be revised downwards to only +0.1% in the second quarter, against +0.3% in the first estimate.
In the United States, the figures for registrations for unemployment benefits, which will be published one hour before the opening of Wall Street, will also give valuable indications on the trajectory of the labor market.
Any signs of improvement in these indicators would support the scenario of monetary tightening and, as a result, could weigh on the stock market.
After having aligned two consecutive weeks of increase in the second half of August, the CAC 40 lost 2.5% over the last six stock market sessions in the prospect of continued monetary tightening by the major central banks.
It remains to be seen whether this downward movement corresponds to the start of a correction or to a simple consolidation after a long sequence of increases which has seen the Parisian index climb by 11% since the start of the year.
In its ‘beige book’ published on Wednesday, the Fed however mentioned a slowdown in the growth of activity and prices in the United States in recent weeks, as well as an easing of wage pressures.
Yields on benchmark government bonds in Europe vary little pending the statistics that will fall during the day. At 2.65%, that of the ten-year German Bund remains above the major threshold of 2.60%.
On the American market, the 10-year paper remains around 4.29%.
The oil market is down slightly after posting strong gains in previous sessions on the prospect of tighter supply.
Brent fell 0.3% to $90.3 a barrel, after peaking at $91.1 earlier in the week, while US light crude WTI fell 0.4% to $87.2.
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