(News Bulletin 247) – The CAC 40 is generally stable at mid-session this Thursday while the market will watch for the intervention of the President of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, this afternoon.

The Paris Stock Exchange is still slowing down. The CAC 40 lost 0.1% to 7,447.13 points at mid-session this Thursday.

Investors are awaiting the announcement of the meeting on rates of the European Central Bank (ECB) at 2:15 p.m. which will be followed by the speech of Christine Lagarde, its president, at 2:45 p.m.

If rates are widely expected to remain stable, the market will be watching for the slightest hint of potential cuts in the months to come.

“Our European economists do not expect a change in message, and they expect President Lagarde to repeat that it is too early for the ECB to let down its guard on inflation. That said, investors still consider that there is a 64% chance that the ECB will cut interest rates by the April meeting, and so it will be interesting to see if the idea that it could cut interest rates so quickly is taken into account,” notes Jim Reid of Deutsche Bank.

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Publicis focuses on AI

On the values ​​side, the results season was officially launched on the CAC 40 with the publication of the accounts of STMicroelectronics which delivered prospects significantly lower than expectations both for its first quarter and for the entire 2024 financial year. value falls by 3%.

Conversely, Publicis (+2.2%) signs a new coup. The advertising group announced its strategy in artificial intelligence and took the opportunity to reveal its revenues for the fourth quarter, which increased by 5.7% on a comparable basis.

LVMH, for its part, will reveal its annual results after the market closes this Thursday.

Excluding CAC 40, Maisons du Monde lost 3% after having activity in the fourth quarter that was “not good but not catastrophic”, according to TP ICAP Midcap.

On Wall Street, Tesla is preparing to experience an atrocious session, the title losing 7.7% in pre-opening trading, after the manufacturer warned that its growth will experience a significant slowdown this year.

On other markets, the euro is stable against the dollar at 1.0893 dollars. Oil is growing. The March contract on North Sea Brent advanced 1.2% to $80.55 per barrel, while that of the same maturity on WTI listed in New York gained 1.3% to $76.08 per barrel. .