(News Bulletin 247) – The Paris Stock Exchange continues another session of decline, penalized by a mountain of rather disappointing company publications. The US growth figures also disappointed, especially as they were accompanied by renewed pressure on prices in the first quarter.

Investors had no time to be bored this Thursday, between an avalanche of company results and the publication in the afternoon of the American gross domestic product (GDP) for the first quarter.

These are all hot spots which put the nerves of operators to the test this Thursday. The wave of results was generally mixed when the US growth figures were much less robust than expected, and they were accompanied by a higher than expected inflation indicator.

The gross domestic product (GDP) of the United States grew less than expected, by 1.6% in the first quarter, according to a first estimate. Economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal, for their part, expected an increase of 2.2% on an annual basis. Meanwhile, inflationary tensions persist since the underlying inflation indicator increased against all expectations, by 3.7% over the first three months of the year, after 2% in the fourth quarter.

A statistic which did not fail to frighten the markets on the eve of the publication of another inflation indicator, the PCE price index for March. The CAC 40 also lost up to 1.7% to 7,955.51 points, shortly before 4:00 p.m., before containing its decline to 0.93% to 8,016.65 points at the close.

New weekly unemployment registrations were also lower than expected, at 207,000 the previous week, against a consensus of 215,000.

11 CAC 40 companies on today’s agenda

An avalanche of mixed publications also weighed on the Parisian market. This Thursday, 11 CAC 40 companies have published, or will report after the close of the Paris market.

The operators took care to dissect the quarterly performances of Dassault Systèmes, which lost 4.24% after quarterly results described as “mixed at best” by Stifel.

Hermès lost 2.44% despite vigorous growth of 17% excluding currency effects in the first quarter, against a consensus of 14%.

Pernod Ricard returned 2.45% as its sales disappointed investors in the third quarter.

Carrefour was not positive this Thursday (-2.2%) with revenues also less dynamic than expected by analysts, and a lowering of recommendations from Morgan Stanley to “online weighting” against “overweight” previously. .

A few groups stand out positively. Sanofi jumped 4.5% after revealing results “a little above expectations”, according to Oddo BHF, which allows it to take the lead in the CAC 40 this Thursday evening.

STMicroelectronics has not deviated from its reputation as a volatile value. The stock closed up 1.1% after opening down 5%. The group lowered its annual revenue target and delivered results that were worse than expected. But the market judges a priori that the bottom of the wave has now passed for the semiconductor specialist.

BNP Paribas gained 0.9% thanks to a net profit above expectations thanks to results driven by its “corporate and investment banking” division.

Outside the CAC 40, Fnac Darty is doing well and jumped 5.9% thanks to a publication that was “not so bad” to use the words of TP ICAP Midcap.

Eramet recovered 4.1%, supported by an increase in gross operating surplus prospects for 2024, despite a lackluster first quarter due to its difficulties in New Caledonia.

On other markets, the euro gained 0.2% against the dollar to 1.0720 dollars. Oil is losing some ground. The June contract on Brent from the North Sea lost 0.2% to 87.83 dollars per barrel, while that of the same maturity on WTI listed in New York returned 0.4% to 82.50 dollars per barrel.