(News Bulletin 247) – The Paris Stock Exchange is moving forward a little this Monday at the start of a week which will be marked by the meetings of the American Federal Reserve on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Paris Stock Exchange is off to a difficult start to the week. The CAC 40 gained 0.11% at mid-session this Monday to 8,173.36 points, while many central banks will hold monetary policy meetings in the coming days.

“At the start of a busy week in terms of central bank meetings (including the Bank of Japan on Tuesday, the Fed on Wednesday and the Bank of England on Thursday), the rate markets fear less accommodating speeches after the upward surprises inflation since the start of the year. The American 10-year rate is thus close to its highest of the year”, explains Xavier Chapard of LBPAM.

“The only central bank that could change its monetary policy this week is the Bank of Japan. And this possibility has increased after the sharp rise in negotiated wages, which are at their highest in 33 years,” he continues.

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Alstom is making progress

As for the American Federal Reserve (Fed), “we believe that the tone of the press release and of Powell during the press conference should not change too much, indicating that the next movement in rates should be downward, but that it “will not intervene immediately”, continues Xavier Chapard of LBPAM.

For the moment, the macroeconomic agenda for this Monday is not very busy. Except for a few Chinese indicators, such as industrial production which increased by 7% over the period from January to February, more than the Reuters consensus.

On the corporate side, Alstom, which has just left the CAC 40, took 9.6% supported by Deutsche Bank which raised its recommendation to purchase. The German bank believes that the railway equipment manufacturer has passed the worst of its cash generation and expects its margins to increase significantly.

On other markets, the euro gained 0.1% against the dollar to 1.0903 dollars. Oil is gaining ground, the May contract on Brent from the North Sea advances 0.6% to 85.80 dollars per barrel while that of April on WTI listed in New York advances 0.7% to 81.58 dollars per barrel.