The Paris stock market lost nearly 0.4% this morning, around 7,490 points, penalized by Hermès (down 3%), behind Vinci (-1.8%) and Stellantis (-1.7%), on the eve of a busy week, marked by an avalanche of quarterly results.

Publications from heavyweights Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and Apple will be closely scrutinized, while investors have tended to abandon the "Magnificent Seven" in recent weeks.

Since peaking on July 10, the Nasdaq Composite index has corrected by almost 7%, as these seven tech giants, which were the main contributors to Wall Street's rise over the past year and a half, have fallen by more than 12%.

Microsoft, the world's second-largest market capitalization, will publish its accounts tomorrow evening, followed by Meta on Wednesday, then Amazon and Apple on Thursday evening.

Given that these four stocks alone account for almost 20% of the S&P's weighting and are largely held by institutional investors, any disappointments could lead to further sell-offs, as was the case with Alphabet's heavily punished publication last week.

"Summer is traditionally a time for questioning the dynamics of the global economy - with the resurgence of concerns about China - and the return of questions about the rise of technology stocks, particularly those that have benefited from the AI craze", points out Christopher Dembik, investment strategy advisor at Pictet AM.

In the US, the week will be by far the busiest of the earnings season, with a total of 171 S&P 500 components, including 30 Dow Jones, due to publish their second-quarter figures.

At this stage, 78% of the US companies that have already published earnings have exceeded analysts' expectations, compared with an average of 74% over the last ten years.

In France, a number of blue-chip companies such as Airbus, Danone, L'Oréal, Safran, Schneider and Société Générale will also be unveiling their accounts over the coming days.

The week will also be marked by the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday.

No rate changes are expected, but professionals are hoping that Chairman Jerome Powell will open the door to a possible rate cut in September.

'The event may not move the markets that much,' says Jim Reid, market analyst at Deutsche Bank.

We'll probably have to wait for the Jackson Hole symposium (scheduled for August 22-24) for Powell to give a clearer signal in this direction", he concludes.

In other French company news, TotalEnergies has announced its withdrawal from Block 11B/12B, offshore South Africa, in which its local subsidiary holds a 45% interest.

Technip Energies announced on Monday that it had won a contract from a subsidiary of the American Chevron for the installation of a low-carbon cracking furnace technology.

Lastly, Maisons du Monde posted net income of -24.3 million euros for the first half of 2024, compared with one million euros at June 30, 2023, with a negative EBIT margin of -1.2% compared with 3% for the first half of 2023, heavily impacted by lower sales.

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