(News Bulletin 247) – The CAC 40 is sluggish while the market remains in wait-and-see mode before the decision on rates from the European Central Bank.

Another rather gloomy session for the CAC 40. The flagship index of the Paris Stock Exchange is almost standing still this Thursday at mid-session (+0.08%), at 7228.34 points.

The market remains suspended on the monetary policy decision of the European Central Bank (ECB), which will be known at 2:15 p.m. before the speech of its president Christine Lagarde, at 2:45 p.m.

This is perhaps one of the most indecisive meetings the central bank has had in recent history. “We expect the ECB to raise rates, but the decision is very close, with the market estimating that there is a 50% chance of this happening,” emphasizes Bank of America. The ECB will also update its inflation and growth forecasts.

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Arm arrives on Wall Street

On the value side, Pernod Ricard lost 1.7% and Rémy Cointreau 2.6% while Barclays went from “overweight” to “underweight” on the two stocks.

Bouygues (+1.8%) conversely benefits from an increase in recommendation from Exane BNP Paribas to “outperformance” from “neutral”.

On the smaller values ​​side, Esker dropped 6.7% after lowering its profitability target for 2023 due to inflation.

Note that Wall Street will host this afternoon the largest IPO of the year, with the return to the listing of the semiconductor group Arm.

On other markets, the euro advanced 0.01% against the dollar to 1.0733 dollars. Oil contracts are progressing. The November North Sea Brent contract gained 0.7% to $92.52 per barrel while that of WTI listed in New York advanced 0.7% to $89.16 per barrel.