The CAC 40 is down more than 1% this morning, trading around 7,870 points, dragged lower by the retreat in luxury stocks as well as Saint-Gobain (-2.7%) and Stellantis (-2.5%). This downward momentum is mirrored across other exchanges: Frankfurt has slipped 0.5%, while London is limiting its losses at -0.1%. Markets continue to contend with a lack of progress in Iran (the Strait of Hormuz remains congested) and surging oil prices, with Brent crude hovering around 110 USD per barrel.

Against this strained economic backdrop, bond yields are climbing, with the 10-year French OAT reaching 3.97% (+2.5 basis points), while the German Bund of the same maturity is trading at 3.17% (also up 2.5 basis points). In the United States, US T-Bonds have reached 4.60%, a rate that looks like a shot across the bows for Kevin Warsh, the new Fed Chairman, whose nomination has just been confirmed by the Senate.

Christopher Dembik, investment strategy advisor at Pictet AM, remains reassuring, however, highlighting the abundant liquidity in the market, with the global money supply increasing by approximately 11% on an annual basis. 'With such a level of liquidity entering the economy and financial markets, the probability of a recession or a financial crisis is almost zero', the specialist asserts.

Market digests disappointment from Beijing summit

Markets also remain unsatisfied following a Trump-Xi summit that ultimately proved disappointing, despite being presented by the White House as 'one of the most significant diplomatic breakthroughs in recent years'. Washington primarily highlighted the sale of 200 Boeing aircraft - an order that could reach 750 planes - framing it as 'a major victory for American industry and workers', while appearing to ignore that analysts had expected the signing of a mega-contract for 500 sales.

'Our trip to China was a great success and we achieved our primary goal: reopening the Chinese market to Boeing aircraft orders', Boeing told Zonebourse. Nevertheless, the aircraft manufacturer's stock has shed more than 8% over the last two sessions.

As for China, analysts at Commerzbank indicate that its economy has significantly lost momentum after a solid first quarter. They point specifically to persistent weakness in domestic demand and pressures on industrial costs.

Beijing indeed announced a widespread slowdown in activity for April this morning, with industrial production growth limited to 4.1% year-on-year, its slowest pace in nearly 3 years.

Stocks on the move

Elsewhere in market news, Publicis Groupe is posting the strongest gain on the CAC 40 (+4.1%) after reaching an agreement to acquire LiveRamp, a global data collaboration platform.

Pierre & Vacances (-1.6%) announced on Friday that it has filed a complaint following a data breach involving 1.6 million bookings. The incident concerns the La France du Nord au Sud platform, a subsidiary of its Maeva brand.

Ryanair (-3.3%) reported a profit after tax of 2.26 billion euros for its fiscal year ended late March, compared to 1.61 billion euros a year earlier, slightly exceeding the analyst consensus of 2.20 billion euros.

Finally, Novartis (-0.2%) announced new positive data from PSMAddition for its Pluvicto combined with standard of care (SoC) in PSMA-positive metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer (mHSPC).

This evening, markets will digest the operating results from ADP, as well as earnings from Nacon and Bigben.

In the meantime, the euro is edging up 0.1% against the greenback, trading around 1.163 USD.