(News Bulletin 247) – The Paris Stock Exchange is starting the month of May with difficulty. The CAC 40 lost nearly 0.9% to return to close to 7,900 points, penalized in particular by the declines of Totalenergies and Stellantis.

The Paris Stock Exchange is still suffering the blow. Investors have taken the adage “Sell in may and go away” at face value. The May 1 break was therefore not profitable for the CAC 40 which lost 0.88%, ending its run near 7,900 points at 7,914.65 points, Thursday evening.

On Tuesday, the flagship Parisian index concluded the month of April with a monthly drop of 2.7%, the first since October 2023.

On Wall Street, the time is rather for optimism after the announcements from the American Federal Reserve (Fed) the day before as well as the comments made by its president, Jerome Powell. At the close of European markets, the Dow Jones gained 0.4%, the Nasdaq gained 0.6% while the S&P 500 gained 0.5%.

“The press conference consisted mainly of an effort by Powell to evacuate the most hawkish (restrictive) assumptions. He quickly indicated that it was unlikely that the next rate movement would be an increase and returned several times on the conditions for starting rate cuts”, adds Bastien Drut of CPR AM.

The economist also notes that the Fed has reduced the pace of reduction of its balance sheet. The American central bank has decided to slow down the pace of non-reinvestment of certain sovereign debt securities, to $25 billion per month compared to $60 billion previously. “It is therefore a priori $475 billion in Treasury securities that the Fed will put back on the market in 2024, and not $720 billion: this should significantly relieve the Treasury,” he calculates.

Ultimately, rates on American debt are easing. The yield on the 10-year US bond rose to 4.607% this Thursday compared to 4.66% before the Fed’s announcements.

Operators will learn Apple’s first quarter results this Thursday evening after the market, before the American employment figures on Friday afternoon. There will still be numerous corporate results this weekend, including Société Générale, Crédit Agricole and Legrand in France, to name just a few companies.

Teleperformance is there

Regarding the day’s announcements, some publications were welcomed such as that of Teleperformance, which jumped 13.9% after revealing growth above expectations in the first quarter.

Publications from Imerys (+12.6%) and Worldline (+10.4%) were also well received by the market. The payment services group has confirmed its 2024 objectives, after publishing growth above expectations over the first three months of the year.

Red lantern of the CAC 40 this Thursday evening, Stellantis (-4.3%) which had already lost 10% on Tuesday. As for this Thursday’s reaction, “it is a continuation of Tuesday’s bad trend, with, in addition, data from the American market in April which shows a continued drift in stocks”, explains a financial intermediary.

The oil sector was also in bad shape, Schlumberger lost 3.7% and Totalenergies 2.5%. Stocks are reacting to the fall in black gold prices. On Wednesday, the July contract on North Sea Brent lost up to 5%, weighed down by a rise in crude oil inventories in the United States contained in the weekly report of the American information agency on the energy.

This Thursday oil prices are struggling to pick up. The July contract on North Sea Brent advanced 0.2% to $83.57 per barrel, while the June contract on WTI listed in New York lost 0.1% to $78.92 per barrel.

On foreign exchange, the euro lost 0.1% against the dollar to 1.0705 dollars.