by Mara Vilcu

(Reuters) – European scholarships ended up on Thursday, while investors not only assess the latest reversals of US President Donald Trump’s trade policy, but also a volley of business results.

In Paris, the CAC 40 won 0.27% at 7,502.78 points. In Frankfurt, the Dax advanced by 0.49% and in London, the FTSE 100 rose 0.05%.

The Eurostoxx 50 index won 0.27%, the FTSEURofirst 300 took 0.40%and the Stoxx 600 advanced by 0.38%.

US President Donald Trump strongly criticized the President of the American Federal Reserve (Fed), Jerome Powell, before retracting and left investors in doubt as to the question of customs duties imposed on China.

One source told Reuters on Wednesday that the Trump administration is considering lowering customs duties on Chinese products imported while waiting for discussions with Beijing.

“Trump does what he said that he would do in matters of customs duties, and even more. Although our basic scenario provides for a gradual drop in customs duties from now on, there is a deep uncertainty,” according to Paul Diggle, chief economist at Aberdeen.

Optimism has diminished when the Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, said that the reduction in customs duties would not be unilaterally. According to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, the United States is expected to raise all unilateral customs duties against China if they really wanted to resolve the commercial problem.

Furthermore, Fed officials who spoke on Thursday in television interviews said they did not see the urgency of a change in monetary policy, while they are looking to obtain more information to determine how the Trump administration’s customs duties affect the economy.

VALUES

Kering dropped 0.97% after reporting on Wednesday evening with a larger drop than expected of its turnover in the first quarter, penalized in particular by its flagship brand Gucci.

BNP Paribas abandoned 2.15% after results just in accordance with expectations for the first quarter, which gives rise to profit takements. The results of the French bank are also marked by higher management fees than expected.

Sanofi won 0.12% after unchanged his prospects for 2025, his financial director François-Xavier Roger evoking a “volatile world where a certain number of things are difficult to predict”.

Adidas took 2.52%, the German sports equipment supplier having reported on a turnover and profit for the first quarter above expectations on Wednesday.

A Wall Street

At the time of the fence in Europe, exchanges on the New York Stock Exchange indicated an increase of 0.67% for the Dow Jones, 1.35% for the Standard & Poor’s 500 and 1.91% for the Nasdaq Composite.

ServiceNow advances 15.6% after exceeding estimates in terms of profit for the first quarter.

IBM declined by 7.65% after announcing on Wednesday evening that 15 of its contracts with the US administration had been affected by the DOGE cost reduction program (Department of Government Effectiveness).

Pepsico loses 3.56% after having lowered its profit target for 2025 on Thursday and warned against the increase in production costs and volatility linked to the potential customs duties of US President Donald Trump.

The indicators of the day

The household confidence index in France is stable in April, according to the monthly conjuncture survey published Thursday by INSEE.

In Germany, the morale of entrepreneurs improved unexpectedly in April, shows an investigation by the Ifo Institute published Thursday.

Unemployed registrations increased in the United States during the week to April 19, to 222,000 against 216,000 (revised) the previous week, the Department of Labor announced on Thursday.

Changes

The dollar lost 0.27% against a basket of reference currencies after a net rebound the day before linked to a possible softening of Donald Trump’s position on customs duties.

The euro earns 0.34% to $ 1.1351.

RATE

The yield of ten -year -old Treasuries fell from 5.9 base points to 4.3285%. The two years lost 5.4 base points at 3.8073%.

The yield of the German Bund at ten years lost 5.2 base points at 2,4450%. The two years fell from 5.6 base points to 1.6810%.

OIL

The oil market is up on Thursday after a fall of almost 2% on Wednesday linked to information that OPEC+ could increase its gross production.

Brent took 0.06% at 66.16 dollars per barrel and American light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) advances from 0.13% to 62.35 dollars.

(Written by Mara Vîlcu, edited by Augustin Turpin)

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