(News Bulletin 247) – The Paris Stock Exchange ended almost stable this Thursday evening, after the ECB’s decision to lower its rates and the publication of an acceleration in producer prices in the United States.

The Paris Stock Exchange ended up a hair in the red at the end of this day’s meeting of the European Central Bank (ECB). The CAC 40 symbolically stumbles by 0.03% to 7,420.94 points, after having oscillated around its equilibrium point for a good part of the session.

As anticipated by the market, the ECB reduced its deposit rate by 25 basis points (or 0.25 percentage points), bringing it to 3%, for its last meeting of 2024.

“Today’s rate cut is the ECB’s response to the deterioration of economic data, but also to its confidence in the fact that inflation will get closer to its 2% target,” says Ulrike Kastens, economist. European at DWS.

Fears about inflation in the United States

For the future, the normalization of monetary policy is underway, notes Alexandre Perricard, general manager and head of rate management at Uzès Gestion.

Especially since the ECB has abandoned the traditional reference to “maintaining sufficiently restrictive interest rates for as long as necessary” in its press release. Which leaves the door wide open to further rate cuts.

“A further reduction of 25 basis points is already anticipated for the first meeting of 2025, on January 30,” continues Alexandre Perricard.

However, Christine Lagarde did not avoid “the risk of increased frictions in world trade”, which could “weigh on the growth of the euro zone by reducing exports and weakening the world economy”. The ECB has also revised downwards its growth and inflation forecasts from 2024 to 2026.

On the Wall Street side, the indices are trending downward the day after the historic highs recorded by the Nadsaq and after the publication of the producer price index in the United States for the month of November. Wholesale prices rose more than expected, by 3% year-on-year last month, compared to 2.6% in October.

Sopra Steria heckled

On the value side, Sopra Steria fell 9.9% after revealing cautious medium-term growth targets.

DBV Technologies limited its gains to 7.6% after announcing that it had agreed with the American health authority on the next steps to be taken to obtain approval for its patch treating peanut allergy in young children. .

On other markets, the euro gained 0.1% against the dollar to 1.0513 dollars. Oil is falling. The February contract on North Sea Brent fell 0.8% to $72.92 per barrel while the January contract on WTI listed in New York fell 0.9% to $69.66 per barrel.