This final session of the week was already this morning - and remains - soporific: the Paris Bourse has lost between -0.2% and -0.3% since 9:30 this morning, and the CAC40, which is returning to equilibrium, has remained literally trapped in an 8,080/8,100 corridor since 10:15... in algorithmic straitjacket mode (with only 1.1 billion euros traded, after 2.5 billion euros the previous day.... and a tiny 1.8 billion euros on Monday.

The week will therefore end with a -1% decline for the CAC40... which also confirms the stagnation of this index over the last 1 month.
The Parisian index is thus heading for a second consecutive week of decline, despite the buoyant news of the last few days.
The Euro Stoxx50 lost -0.2 but posted the same weekly score as the CAC40, i.e. around -0.9%.
Wall Street, on the other hand, has just reopened higher, with scores now ranging from +0.2% for the Dow Jones, clearly lagging behind the S&P500, which posted +0.8%, climbed back above the 5,300 mark and looks set for a 5th consecutive week of gains.... and a 27th closing record?
The Nasdaq (+0.9%) is already in record territory, thanks to a +200pt advance on Friday the 17th (above 16,900): but all these gains stem from Nvidia's +10% on Thursday, to which the stock added 1% around $1,050, for a market capitalization of $2,600 billion.
This is becoming a regular occurrence, since on Thursday evening, Nvidia accounted for 100% of the rise in the S&P500 (which was down -0.3% at the time) since January 1 (and we don't even need to add the rises of Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta).

The feverishness of the Paris and European markets is fuelled by the rise in bond yields this week: Bunds re-tested 2.60% before easing -1Pt to 2.59%, our OATs erased -1.5Pt to 3.070% (i.e. +7Pts over the week), and Italian BTPs posted -1Pt to 3.89%.

This tension stems from the week's news flow, which only reinforces the feeling that inflation remains a problem for the US economy and the FED.
In Europe, rising PMIs pointing to economic recovery could also bring more inflation via wages and import prices (tax wars in the EU, US and China).
The negative impact on rates would have been much more obvious without Nvidia's stratospheric results and PMIs pointing to economic recovery in Europe.
T-Bonds stabilized at 4.48% for the '10-year' and 4.94% for the '2-year' (+1Pt) despite new 'robust' US figures: durable goods orders rose by 0.7% in April in the US (after +0.8% in March), whereas they had been expected to fall by 0.9%. Excluding defense and aeronautics, they rose by 0.3% versus +0.1% expected, after -0.1% in March.

At 4pm, investors discovered the Michigan consumer confidence index: it came in 1.7Pt higher than expected in May, at 69.1... but significantly down on April's 77.2.
The prospect of interest rates remaining at their highest for several months to come is weighing on consumer plans.

In Europe, the business climate in France was stable in May compared with April, with the synthetic indicator calculated by Insee holding steady at 99, just below its long-term average (100).

Across the Rhine, the German economy grew by 0.2% in the first quarter compared with the previous three months, thanks to buoyant exports and investment spending, according to detailed statistics published on Friday, confirming the initial estimate.

On the FOREX, the Euro strengthened by +0.3% against the Dollar (1.0845), while the greenback fell symmetrically by -0.3% against the major currencies ('$-Index' at 104.80 vs. 105.1 the previous day).
Brent crude bounced back in-extremis from the $81.5 floor, to $81.80 in London, while WTI rallied +0.6% to $77.5 on the NYMEX.
Gold Ounces are trying to resist the pressure from rates at $2,340, i.e. around -$100 compared with Monday.

In French corporate news, Alstom reports that it has placed a €750 million super-subordinated ('hybrid') bond issue, which was 'massively oversubscribed, reflecting strong demand from different geographical areas and investor categories'.

Teleperformance announces that its Board of Directors has decided to cancel three million treasury shares, representing 4.7% of the share capital, shares that had been bought back under a program implemented in April 2023.

Lastly, Renault has gained more than 3%, posting the biggest rise in the CAC 40 and SBF 120 indices. In a note released this morning, UBS changed its opinion to 'neutral' from 'sell', and raised its target price from €31 to €50.


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