(News Bulletin 247) – The Parisian index fell during the day, penalized by the drop in Totalenergies. Unemployment claims in the United States, which rose more than expected, did not have a significant influence on the CAC 40.

In still starving volumes, the Paris Stock Exchange stalled this Thursday. The CAC 40 ended the session with a decline of 0.48% to 7,535.16 points.

The Parisian index was especially penalized by the drop in one of its largest capitalizations and weightings, namely Totalenergies, which lost 1.7%. The oil major itself was weighed down by the decline in oil prices.

The March contract on North Sea Brent lost 1.2% to $78.59 per barrel, while the February contract on WTI listed in New York lost 1.15% to $73.26. The two contracts had mainly dropped around 2% on Wednesday, undermined by the resumption of maritime traffic in the Red Sea.

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Unemployment registrations higher than expected

“As oil tankers … have resumed their crossings of the Suez Canal and the Red Sea, thanks to the reassuring presence of a US-led maritime team in the region, this has helped to allay some immediate concerns regarding supply issues,” explains Susannah Streeter, analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, quoted by AFP.

Weekly unemployment claims in the United States have also increased more than anticipated by economists, to 218,000, compared to 215,000 expected by the consensus compiled by the Wall Street Journal and a figure of 206,000 for the previous week. The impact on the markets, however, was very minor.

On the value side, variations remained contained. After Totalenergies, the second largest drop in the CAC 40 was recorded by Engie (-1.3%) while the largest increase was recorded by Teleperformance (+0.75%).

On the currency side, the euro lost 0.2% against the dollar at 1.1083 dollars, although not without having crossed the 1.11 dollar mark on Wednesday evening.