After a hesitant morning and a very mixed start to the afternoon, the Paris Bourse (+0.9%) is heading for a strong close with the support of Wall Street, where the S&P500 posted +0.6% and the Nasdaq +0.7%.
Activity remains modest on this All Saints' Day (a public holiday in France, Italy, Spain and other European countries), which may be helping to widen the upside gaps.

The CAC40 climbs above 6,940 in the wake of Danone, Engie and Stellantis (from +2.2% to +2.6%).

Wall Street shows resilience just hours before the FED's final statement, and shows no signs of nervousness with the release of a series of rather mediocre 'stats': the US private sector generated just 113,000 new jobs in October, according to the monthly survey published this Wednesday by ADP, a specialist in human resources management outsourcing.
The leading index of manufacturing activity, the ISM, contracted for the 12th consecutive month in the US in October, with the rate of decline even faster than in the previous month, to 46.7 last month from 49 (the ISM was expected to remain unchanged).
The sharpest declines were in the sub-indices measuring new orders (down from 49.2 to 45.5) and employment (46.8 vs. 51.2), both of which fell below the 50-point mark separating contraction and growth in activity.

The picture is not much different for the S&P Global manufacturing PMI, which finally came in at 50 for the past month, in line with its flash estimate and after 49.8 for September.
It's also a busy day on the results front, with releases mainly from Qualcomm, Mondelez, PayPal, Estee Lauder, Kraft Heinz, Electronic Arts and DuPont.

The high point of the session will come at 7pm, when the FED will publish its monetary policy statement at the close of the FOMC meeting which began yesterday: Jerome Powell will speak at a press conference scheduled for around 30 minutes later.

The Federal Reserve is not expected to change its key rates, but investors are expecting the institution to provide valuable clues as to the evolution of its strategy over the coming months.

The intensification of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, following the bombing of a refugee camp in the north of the Gaza Strip, could also contribute to a slowdown in initiatives.
The entry into the war of the part of Yemen under the control of the Shi'ite Houthi militias only complicates the situation, even if the Yemeni rebels' capacity to cause harm seems limited, given the obsolescence of their arsenal, which dates back 30 years and is no match for the US and Isarel navies.

On the bond market, the ISM and PMI figures published in the early afternoon sent US Treasury yields plummeting: the 10-year bond fell by 7.5pts to 4.802%.
The easing movement spread to Europe, where the German Bund fell by 56pts to 2.755%, the French OAT by 65pts to 3.372%... and Italian BTPs by 8pts to 4.65%.

On the oil front, crude prices retreated, with the break of $88 confirmed on 'Brent' with -1.7% to $86 in London (after an initial decline of -2% to $85.8).
No notable change in weekly US crude oil inventories: data published by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed that US crude oil inventories stood at 421.9 million barrels for the week ending October 23, marking a modest increase of 0.8 million barrels on the previous week.

Inventories of distillates - including heating oil - fell symmetrically by 0.8 million barrels, while gasoline stocks rose by an anecdotal 0.1 million barrels, again compared with the previous week, the agency continues.
Finally, the EIA reports that refineries operated at 85.4% of capacity during the same week, with average production of 9.5 million barrels/day.


In French company news, Airbus has announced a firm order from Air Niugini, the national airline of Papua New Guinea, for six A220-100s as part of its fleet modernization program. In addition, it will acquire three A220-300s and two A220-100s from third-party leasing companies.

Schneider Electric announces that, following the agreement signed on October 27, 2022, it has now finalized the previously announced sale of its industrial sensors business, Telemecanique Sensors, to YAGEO.

Finally, Stellantis (+2.3%) announced on Wednesday the formation of a new management team in China, with the stated aim of ensuring the successful execution of its strategic partnership with electric car manufacturer Leapmotor, in which it now holds a 20% stake.

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