PARIS (Reuters) – The main European scholarships are down Wednesday in the morning in the aftermath of a prudent speech by Jerome Powell, the president of the American Federal Reserve (Fed), but the defense compartment offers a little support with Donald Trump’s flip -flop on Russia.

In Paris, the CAC 40 lost 0.38% to 7,842.65 points around 07:30 GMT. In London, the FTSE 100 abandons 0.31% and in Frankfurt, the Dax fell 0.33%.

The Eurostoxx 50 index reflected 0.32% and the FTSEUROFITS 300 of 0.42%. The Stoxx 600 flexes 0.52%.

The term contracts to Wall Street prefigure quasi-stability for the Dow Jones, the Standard & Poor’s 500 and the Nasdaq the day after a red session.

Jerome Powell said on Tuesday evening that the American central bank was in a “difficult situation”, citing in particular the risk of stronger than expected inflation, while low employment growth arouses concern.

The few indications provided by the president of the Fed on the development of interest rates in the United States on Tuesday placed investors across the Atlantic on the defensive, which is affected this Wednesday in Europe. Especially since the PMI index of business activity showed a slowdown in September for the second consecutive month.

Interventions by other central bankers, scheduled during the day, could accentuate prudence on the markets, which are currently close to their record level.

At the values, in Paris, Exeail Technologies drops by 5.49% after bond investment, while in contrast Emeis jumped 6.17%, the French EHPAD group having announced Tuesday the creation of a property dedicated to the management of its health assets in Europe, in partnership with the Farallon Capital and Twentytwo Real Estate investment funds.

Atos took 4.45% in favor of the announcement of a major cybersecurity service contract with the European Commission.

The technological sector in Europe (-0.23%) does not benefit from the good performance of Alibaba which unveiled an artificial intelligence model, baptized Qwen3-Max, with 1,000 billion parameters, nor of Micron Technology forecasts.

The defense sector, on the other hand, reacts, taking 0.78%, after US President Donald Trump, in a change of speech, said that he thought that Ukraine could reconquer the whole territory won by Russia. The Swedish group SAAB increased by around 4%, also carried by information that Germany is considering a purchase of its Global Eye surveillance plane.

Hensoldt, who provides sensor systems for Eurofighter, climbs 4%, while German Renk and Italian Leonardo each advance by around 2%.

French companies Thales and Dassault Aviation are up 1% and 1.6% respectively.

In the other sectors, on the Beach fell by 14.36%, the British trip specialist having announced to anticipate an annual profit below market expectations, while his competitor saga leaps by 8.3% after having assured that his travel reservations for the second half of the year were solid.

JD Sports Fashion advances almost 1% after maintaining its forecasts for the whole year.

(Written by Claude Chendjou, edited by Augustin Turpin)

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