(News Bulletin 247) – The Parisian index ended this Friday’s session sharply lower, while oil prices rose sharply, supported by fears surrounding the war between Israel and Hamas.

Geopolitics shook up the markets week and this Friday’s session was no exception. With the rise in oil prices, the CAC 40 dropped 1.42% to 7,003.53 points, barely preserving 7,000 points. Over the week as a whole, the flagship index of the Paris Stock Exchange lost 0.8%.

Black gold prices are indeed rising sharply this Friday. The December contract on Brent from the North Sea advanced 3.6% to 89.13 dollars per barrel while that of November on WTI listed in New York gained 3.8% to 85.94 dollars per barrel.

Black gold prices are supported by fears that the conflict between Israel and Hamas will spread to neighboring countries, with potential repercussions for producing countries. Attention is focused in particular on Iran, the main donor and arms supplier to Hamas.

“The flammable context in the Middle East could easily lead to considerable supply shortages (in oil, editor’s note),” explains Tamas Varga, analyst at PVM Energy, quoted by AFP.

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American banks pass the test of quarterly results

The markets were also somewhat seized by the publication, on Thursday, of American inflation slightly higher than expected. This publication above all showed resistance in housing costs, considered by the American Federal Reserve (Fed) as a potential risk of inflation.

Investors also learned this Friday of an index measuring household morale, that of the University of Michigan. And it is relatively bad, with a figure of 63 in October compared to 68.1 the previous month. “Household confidence is suffering from renewed concerns about inflation,” observes Capital Economics.

Note that the first results of American banks are well received on Wall Street. JP Morgan, Citi and Wells Fargo, all three of which published their third quarter accounts, took 3.1%, 2.9% and 3.6% respectively.

Thales signs a great series

In Paris, Totalenergies gained 1.6%, benefiting from the rise in oil prices. Thales gained 1.1%, the defense and technology group benefiting from investors’ appetite for military groups, due to rising geopolitical tensions. Over five sessions, Thales gained nearly 13%.

Sartorius Stedim plunged more than 16.7% after again issuing a warning on its results, the second after that of last June.

Alstom lost 3.9%, while Moody’s lowered the outlook for the railway equipment manufacturer’s rating from “stable” to “negative”, which however constitutes a lesser evil for the group which recently stunned investors by warning that it would burn cash in its current financial year.

Thermador Groupe returned 10.4%, the Isère specialist in the import and wholesale of faucet items delivered a cautious outlook after showing an organic decline in its revenues in the third quarter.

On the foreign exchange market, the euro lost 0.3% to 1.0500 dollars.