by Claude Chendjou

PARIS (Reuters) – The European scholarships, apart from Frankfurt, finished in green Wednesday and Wall Street was also up mid -session in exchanges without much conviction pending decisions in the evening of the American Federal Reserve (Fed).

In Paris, the CAC 40 ended on a gain of 0.70% at 8,171.47 points. The British Footsie nibbled 0.02%. The German Dax, weighed down by profit in defense values, reflected 0.34%. The index had also scored a record the day before, at 23,476.01 points.

The Eurostoxx 50 index won 0.46% and the FTSEURofirst 300 0.28%. The Stoxx 600 rose 0.26%, mainly pulled by the energy compartment (+1.53%), in a context of geopolitical risk.

At the time of the end in Europe, the Dow Jones advances by 0.63%, the Standard & Poor’s 500 of 0.73%and the NASDAQ of 0.95%.

Eight of the eleven large sectors of the S&P 500 are in the green, the compartment of discretionary consumption (+1.07%) displaying one of the best performance before the Fed announcements.

The American central bank is expected to unchangle the rate target of “Fed funds”, in a range of 4.25% to 4.50%. The traders provide that it will reduce its borrowing costs only in July, with at least two decreases of 25 base points expected by December, according to data compiled by LSEG.

The market is especially awaiting the new economic projections of the bank officials with regard to the policy led by the American president, Donald Trump.

“The Fed is confronted with the same uncertainty as market players in terms of the real development of customs duties,” said Jordan Rizzuto, director of investments at Gammaroad Capital Partners.

The European Union (EU) plans to reduce its steel imports by 15% in the face of American customs duties from April, the European Commission’s executive vice-president told Reuters on Wednesday.

On the geopolitical level, the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelensky, trained Wednesday with Donald Trump in the aftermath of a telephone call between the US head of state and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin during which the two men agreed with a 30-day cease-fire in Ukraine limited to energy infrastructures. However, Russia and Ukraine have mutually accused of new attacks, while carrying out an important exchange of prisoners of war.

Values ​​in Europe

Defense groups Renk Group, Rheinmettall and Hensoldt lost 4.53% and 9.31% on the aftermath of the green light from the Bundestag to a debt brake reform which should support the country’s military spending.

Traton dropped by 6.18% and Volkswagen by 1.53%, the latter having announced his intention to sell a participation of 2.2% in Traton for 360 million euros.

Schneider Electric (+2.87%) took advantage of the recovery of the RBC recommendation, which passed from “underperformance” to “outperformance”.

Compass fell 4.76%, BNP Paribas having demoted the value to “underperformance”.

The indicators of the day

Inflation in the euro zone emerged at 2.3% over a year in February, a rhythm slightly lower than the first estimate, show the final data published by Eurostat.

Changes

The dollar climbs on Wednesday 0.51% against a basket of reference currencies, bouncing a hollow of several months, before the Fed announcements.

The greenback notably benefits from the rush on the Refugee currency after the 12% fall in the Turkish pound, following the arrest for “corruption” of the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, principal opponent of President Tayyip Recep Erdogan.

The euro flexes 0.53%, to 1.0885 dollars, while the pound sterling exchanges $ 1.2,973 (-0.22%).

RATE

The yield of German state bonds at ten years has ended up with approximately two basic points (PB), to 2.798%, after reaching a two -week lower session at 2.748%. He had climbed to 2.938% last week, his highest level since October 2023. The attention of investors has been on the Fed and American customs duties.

The yield of American treasury bills at ten years rises from 2.3 base points, to 4.3041%, and that of two years from 3.1 pb, to 4.0754%, after having a summit a peak since February 27, at 4.086%.

OIL

Oil prices go up on Wednesday on the background of falling crude stocks in the United States last week, while investors keep an eye on the evolution of the situation in Ukraine.

Brent increased from $ 70.74 to a barrel and the American brut (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) from 0.27% to 67.08 dollars.

To be continued Thursday:

Monetary policy decision of the Bank of England (BOE) at 12:00 pm GMT

(Written by Claude Chendjou, edited by Kate Entringer)

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