The CAC40 ended the day at 7333 points (+0.79%), its highest level of the day, driven by Hermès (+2%), Schneider Electric (+1.6%) and LVMH (+1.6%) in limited volumes, typical of the August period, with 2.2 billion euros traded throughout the day.

The market benefited from a certain return to optimism following recent data pointing to an easing of inflation in the USA.

Thus, following the reassuring producer price figures published yesterday in the USA (up 0.1% in July), the US consumer price index rose by 2.9% in July 2024 compared with the same month in 2023, i.e. the lowest inflation rate since March 2021, and in line with Jefferies' expectations.

Against this backdrop, Mahmoud Alkudsi, Senior Market Analyst at ADSS, believes that this data 'could give the Federal Reserve greater confidence to accelerate its pace of key rate cuts'.

'Inflation appears to be cooling from the high levels seen earlier in the year', he continues.

With a 50 basis point rate cut now more likely in September, the Fed could end the year on an interest rate cut of at least one percentage point', adds the analyst.

According to the strategists, every figure indicating that the economy is not heading for recession, but rather for a soft landing, will be a calming factor for the markets in the weeks ahead.

Still on the statistics front, this morning the markets learned of a 2.3% year-on-year rise in consumer prices in France in July, a slight increase on June's +2.2% annual rate, according to Insee, which thus confirms its provisional estimate for last month.

In the UK, the consumer price index (CPI) rose by 2.2% in the 12 months to July 2024, an annual rate 0.2 points up on the previous month, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Finally, data published by the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA) showed that U.S. crude oil inventories stood at 430.7 million barrels in the week to August 5, up 1.4 million barrels on the previous week.

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