(BFM Stock Exchange) – The Parisian index evolves slightly up at mid -session of this Friday, August 22. The market is watching for the intervention of Jerome Powell, scheduled at 4 p.m.

The Paris Stock Exchange avoids taking initiatives this Friday, August 22. The CAC 40, its main index, takes 0.25% at 7,958.85 points at mid-session.

Investors are waiting for the intervention of the President of the American Federal Reserve (Fed), Jerome Powell, during the Jackson Hole symposium in Wyoming. His speech entitled “Revue des perspectives and the economic framework” is scheduled for 4 p.m. French time.

His intervention will then arise that market operators began to speculate on rate drops from the Fed. According to the Fedwatch tool of the CME Group, investors grant a probability of 69.5% to a reduction in guiding rates by a quarter of a point in September.

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A dilemma for Powell?

The latest American activity data, including job creations, have been generally disappointing. But, at the same time, inflation remains high in the United States. And a majority of Fed members expressed its concerns about the risk of accelerating prices increase, during the July meeting, according to the report published on Wednesday.

“Investors will carefully observe if Powell attaches more importance to the low wages rather than more stable measures of the weakness of the labor market and to always solid data on activity and inflation,” explains Deutsche Bank.

On the values ​​side, the variations on the CAC 40 go between +2% (stmicroelectronics) and -0.5% (crossroads). Air Liquide, which has announced its largest acquisition in ten years with the acquisition of Korean Dig Airgas for 2.85 billion euros, yields 0.07%.

In other markets, the euro fell 0.1% against the dollar to 1.1597 dollars. Oil drops a little. The October contract on the Brent de Mer of the North gives up 0.3% to 67.50 dollars per barrel while the same maturity on the WTI listed in New York abandons 0.2% to 63.38 Dollars per barrel.