(News Bulletin 247) – The CAC 40 is almost stable at mid-session this Monday while several statements from members of the European Central Bank suggesting that rate cuts could be discussed at the next meeting.

After its solid session on Friday (+2.28%), the CAC 40 is not wavering and that’s already not bad. The flagship index of the Paris Stock Exchange rose 0.04% at mid-session to 7,637 points.

The news is notably marked by a burst of declarations from members of the European Central Bank (ECB) this weekend. The governor of the Bank of France, François Villeroy de Galhau, told La Tribune du Dimanche that a rate cut would take place this year. He did not give a date but explained “that everything would be open during the next meetings”.

“The next step will be a reduction, and it is within our reach,” Peter Kazimir, the governor of the central bank of Slovakia, wrote on his blog. “I am convinced that the exact timing, whether April or June, is secondary to the impact of the decision,” he added.

Conversely, the Dutch Klaas Knot, president of the central bank of the Netherlands, suggested that the ECB must be certain that wage growth “will adapt to the slowdown in inflation” before cutting rates.

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Fed and Gafam on the menu

The main market meeting this week for central banks obviously remains the meeting of the American Federal Reserve (Fed), with its decision expected Wednesday evening.

This week will also be marked by the publication of quarterly results from Microsoft and Alphabet (Tuesday) as well as Apple, Amazon and Meta (Thursday). As for the CAC 40, BNP Paribas, Sanofi and Dassault Systèmes will deliver their results on Thursday.

Coming back to this Monday’s market reactions, two stocks are particularly suffering. Eutelsat plunges 15% following the lowering of its forecasts for the current financial year due to delays at OneWeb.

SMCP dropped 6.4% after also issuing a profit warning.

On other markets, the euro fell 0.3% against the dollar to 1.0821 dollars. Oil is sluggish. The March contract on Brent from the North Sea gained 0.2% to 83.11 dollars per barrel while that of the same maturity on WTI listed in New York advanced 0.2% to 78.18 dollars per barrel.