(News Bulletin 247) – The Parisian index changes little this Thursday while the European Central Bank will announce its decision on rates at 2:15 p.m. followed by the press conference of its president.
The Paris Stock Exchange is struggling to move forward this Thursday after a rather strange session the day before. The CAC 40 fell 0.1% at midday, to 8,034.29 points.
Investors are eagerly awaiting the outcome of the European Central Bank (ECB) meeting this Thursday, with the monetary policy decision expected at 2:15 p.m. Then, its president Christine Lagarde will speak at a press conference at 2:45 p.m.
This meeting comes as investors lowered their forecasts for rate cuts from the US Federal Reserve (Fed) the day before, following the publication of inflation in the United States for the month of March.
>> Access our exclusive graphic analyses, and gain insight into the Trading Portfolio
Societe Generale up, Publicis solid
This trend carried over to the forecasts for the ECB. “The revaluation of US rates reverberated globally and investors began to push back against the likelihood of rate cuts from other central banks. In particular, the likelihood of a rate cut from the ECB by June has fallen to 82%, compared to 91% the day before,” notes Jim Reid of Deutsche Bank.
The market expert notes that his fellow economists at Deutsche Bank believe, however, that “while there are limits to the divergence between ECB and Fed policy over time, nothing prevents the ECB to cut rates first or set its own pace of reduction from the start of the easing cycle.
On the value side, the Société Générale bank gained 2% driven by the announcement of the sale of its professional equipment financing activities to BPCE for 1.1 billion euros.
Publicis, the first CAC 40 stock to publish its first quarter activity, gained 1%. The advertising group delivered a “solid” quarter for Bank of America, with like-for-like growth of 5.3% year-on-year.
On the smallest values, the catamaran specialist Catana gained 4.1% after publishing its activity for the first half of its staggered financial year.
On other markets, the euro fell 0.1% against the dollar to 1.0732 dollars. Oil is grabbing ground. The June North Sea Brent contract gained 0.29% to $90.73 per barrel while WTI listed in New York advanced 0.2% to $86.37 per barrel.
I have over 8 years of experience working in the news industry. I have worked as a reporter, editor, and now managing editor at 247 News Agency. I am responsible for the day-to-day operations of the news website and overseeing all of the content that is published. I also write a column for the website, covering mostly market news.
