PARIS (Reuters) – The main European stock markets are relatively calm on Tuesday morning awaiting American inflation figures and decisions from the Federal Reserve (Fed) which begins a two-day meeting.
In Paris, the CAC 40 is approaching its historic peak of April 24 at 7,581.26 points, gaining 0.20% to 7,566.85 points around 08:30 GMT. In London, the FTSE 100 advanced by 0.31% and in Frankfurt, the Dax gained 0.18%.
The EuroStoxx 50 index increased by 0.26% and the FTSEurofirst 300 by 0.10%. The Stoxx 600, close to a 22-month peak, nibbles 0.09%.
Futures contracts on Wall Street predict a stable opening for the Dow Jones (+0.07%) and for the Standard & Poor’s 500 (+0.08%), while the Nasdaq could gain 0.18% the day after ‘a session up slightly.
Investors are awaiting US consumer price figures at 1:30 p.m. GMT as the Fed makes its monetary policy decisions on Wednesday after two days of FOMC debate.
This decision will be followed on Thursday by those of the European Central Bank (ECB), the Bank of England (BoE) and the Swiss National Bank (SNB), with markets speculating since November on a rapid reduction in central bank rates in 2024 after a status quo widely expected for the December meetings.
On the stock market in Europe, the positive trend is driven by basic resources (+0.32%), cyclical (+0.53%) and industrial (+0.18%) stocks.
ArcelorMittal takes the lead in the CAC 40 with a gain of 2.11%.
In the red in Paris, Renault (-0.14%) announced on Tuesday a plan to sell a 5% tranche of its 28.4% stake held in its partner Nissan, an operation which will have an impact until to 1.5 billion euros on the net profit of the French car manufacturer.
Sanofi fell (-0.36%) after the announcement of the abandonment of an exclusive licensing agreement with Maze Therapeutics for Pompe disease.
Still in the health sector, Astrazeneca gained 0.87% thanks to the acquisition of Icosavax for $1.1 billion in order to strengthen its portfolio of vaccines against respiratory syncytial virus.
Carl Zeiss jumped 8.49%, the German medical technology group having published an annual turnover increase and published a more optimistic outlook.
Nokia drops 2.6% after the Finnish telecom equipment manufacturer lowered its profit margin target for 2026.
(Writing by Claude Chendjou, edited by Kate Entringer)
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