(News Bulletin 247) – The CAC 40 is moving slightly green this Monday while the market is still digesting Jerome Powell’s message from this Friday.

The Paris Stock Exchange is hesitating a little this Monday. The CAC 40 is up 0.16% to 7,589.14 points at mid-session. The day is relatively peaceful. But investors are nevertheless keeping an eye on the situation in the Middle East. Israel said on Sunday that it had launched multiple airstrikes in Lebanon after foiling a large-scale Hezbollah attack.

Separately, the parallel government in eastern Libya said it was suspending oil production and exports after the other government, based in Tripoli, decided to change the head of the country’s central bank, according to Bloomberg.

Oil is rising in the wake of all these announcements. The October contract on North Sea Brent is up 1.9% at $79.65 a barrel while the same contract on WTI is up 2.1% at $76.43 a barrel.

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Jackson Hole still in people’s minds

Otherwise, the market continues to digest the intervention of the president of the American Federal Reserve (Fed), Jerome Powell, on Friday in Jackson Hole.

“Powell, during his speech in Jackson Hole on Friday, confirmed that the Fed would finally begin to lower its key rates in September because the downward risks to employment equal, or even exceed, the upward risks to inflation,” summarizes Xavier Chapard of LBPAM.

“More structurally, his speech indicates that the Fed believes it has finished its campaign to fight inflation and that it now wishes to avoid an abrupt slowdown in the economy,” he adds.

No major movement in stocks. On the CAC 40, the biggest increase is limited to +0.8% (Pernod Ricard) and the biggest decrease to -0.5% (Safran).

On the currencies, the euro fell by 0.2% against the dollar to 1.1173 dollars.