On Wall Street, indices are also trading in negative territory. Around 5:45 p.m., the Dow Jones is down 0.75%.

Trump: "They are the ones begging me for a deal"

The Trump administration claims to have proposed a 15-point plan to Iran to end the war. According to a statement from the Iranian news agency Tasnim, Iran responded to these 15 points by demanding, among other things, compensation and war reparations, and an end to the war on all fronts. Tehran also indicated that its sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz is a natural and legal right that must be recognized. The source specified that these are Iran's conditions, independent of the demands made during the second round of nuclear negotiations in Geneva, held a few days before the US-Israeli war against Tehran in February.

"The Iranians are begging us to find a deal, I don't know if it will be possible, if we are willing to do it... They should have done it four weeks ago, even two years ago," Trump stated during the press conference.

Yesterday, the US President reaffirmed that Iran was discussing a peace deal with Washington, a claim denied by Tehran due to what the US President described as the fear among Iranian leaders in charge of "negotiating" of being "killed by their own people."

"We are completely wiping them out," the US Head of State asserted regarding the clashes, claiming to have hit "Iran's military capabilities at an unprecedented level." "We are the strongest military in the world, by far. (...) We are destroying their stockpiles of missiles, drones, their industrial capabilities, (...) their air forces," he explained.

Furthermore, Trump once again blamed NATO. Iran "fired a missile with a range of 2,500 km toward" the strategic US-British base at Diego Garcia, and "the British (...) did not want to be dragged into the conflict." "We are very disappointed with NATO. NATO has really done nothing," the White House resident lashed out.

In the commodities market, Brent crude continues to climb, surpassing the 100 dollar mark. Around 5:50 p.m., it is up more than 5% at 108.53 dollars. WTI is advancing 4.23% to 95.02 USD.

"I thought oil prices would rise more and stock markets would collapse further," Donald Trump admitted, but the current situation "no doubt testifies to the fact that they have confidence in the US President and the people around this table," Trump noted on this point.

According to Christopher Dembik, Investment Strategy Advisor at Pictet AM, "technical rebounds are possible. However, a sustainable return to growth is contingent on the start of negotiations between the Americans and the Iranians. We are far from that, it seems. The signals reaching us are contradictory. On a positive note, Saudi Arabia confirmed it has successfully rerouted 40% of its oil, which usually passes through the Strait of Hormuz, via its East-West pipeline. On the negative side, we are already starting to perceive the impact of inflation on production chains."

Edenred and Quadient in sharp decline

On the equity side, Edenred plummeted nearly 18%, ending as the bottom performer on the SBF 120. The Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) opened an investigation into Edenred Italia and its parent company Edenred SE for a possible abuse of dominant position in the meal voucher market, it announced this morning. The regulator is particularly concerned about a strategy implemented after the introduction of a legal cap on reimbursement fees. The AGCM suspects that Edenred may have unilaterally modified the terms for accepting electronic vouchers, removing direct integration with the checkout systems of major retailers in favor of more costly third-party interconnection solutions. The group is also alleged to have imposed less favorable conditions, such as extended reimbursement periods.

Quadient tumbled 14.20%, posting one of the sharpest declines on the SRD. The global automation platform for secure and sustainable business connections is being penalized by its 2025 annual results. Its revenues are down 5.2% to 1.036 billion euros. EBITDA slumped 7.2% to 230 million euros, gross margin fell 5.7% to 771 million euros, while operating income swung from 123 million euros to -8 million euros.

Elsewhere, Trigano retreated 1.55% despite its first-quarter 2025/2026 revenue of 1.78 billion euros rising 6.2%, though it came in slightly below expectations. Analysts remain optimistic, however, citing solid momentum and a healthy order book. The group also confirmed its outlook for improved profitability for 2025/26 and announced an interim dividend payment of 2.10 EUR per share for the 2026 fiscal year.

In contrast, Kering edged up 0.06% after spending much of the session at the top of the CAC 40. The stock had gained 2.5% shortly before 2:00 p.m., following a "pre-close call" held the previous day, which was deemed encouraging. This conference call apparently reassured analysts regarding the business momentum of the luxury group over the first three months of the year. "The indications provided by the company for this first quarter lead us to slightly adjust our 2026 growth forecasts downward to reflect a more moderate pace of sequential improvement, particularly at Gucci," Oddo BHF explained in its note.

In Europe, H&M (-2.18%) retreated after reporting first-quarter revenue below market expectations, while remaining reassuring about the impact of the Middle East conflict. The Swedish group, the world's second-largest fashion retailer, reported this morning that net sales fell 10% to 49.6 billion Swedish kronor for the three months ended February. Thanks to cost-cutting measures, the retailer's operating profit nevertheless rose 26% to 1.51 billion SEK over the last three months, while the consensus was only targeting 1.43 billion.
This performance proved lower than analyst forecasts, which had targeted 50.2 billion on average.