(News Bulletin 247) – The CAC 40 fell slightly this Thursday as the Bank of Japan sent signals suggesting that it could end its negative key rates. Bad Chinese statistics may also weigh on the trend.

Asian news is slowing the progression of the CAC 40. After two sessions in the green, the Parisian index is struggling to advance this Thursday, losing 0.07% at mid-session to 7,430.75 points.

The Bank of Japan (BoJ) is making headlines. Comments “from officials at the Bank of Japan have suddenly led investors to increase the chances that the BoJ will end its negative interest rate policy”, underlines Deutsche Bank.

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Air France-KLM weighed down by JPMorgan

Deputy Governor Ryozo Himono, for example, said that Japanese households could benefit from higher interest income if rates were positive. As a result, the yield on the 10-year Japanese bond jumped 11 basis points (0.11%) to 0.756%. The yen appreciated sharply, gaining 1.6% against the dollar, a significant variation on the foreign exchange market.

In addition, China’s foreign trade figures are disappointing. Imports contracted in November, by 0.6% year-on-year, while analysts polled by Bloomberg expected an increase of 3.7%. “The latest set of figures on Chinese trade indicates that the economy is still in difficulty,” underlines Michael Hewson of CMC Markets.

On the value side, variations remain little significant on the CAC 40, with defensive stocks like Edenred (+1.4%) or Danone (+1%) making progress.

Air France-KLM dropped 5.4%, penalized by a lowering of recommendation from JPMorgan to “underweight”.

On other markets, the euro gained 0.07% against the dollar to 1.0772 dollars. Oil prices are recovering a little but remain down 13% over one month. The February North Sea Brent contract advanced 0.9% to $75.02 per barrel, while the January contract for WTI listed in New York also advanced 0.9% to $70 per barrel.