While Wall Street has largely welcomed the arrival of Donald Trump at the White House, European markets are correcting, overtaken by the prospect of a tightening of American customs duties against Europe and China.
Export stocks and particularly luxury goods are heavily sanctioned and thus penalize the CAC40 with their heavy weighting in the index.
Over the last 5 days, Kering has lost 8.5%, Téléperformance 8.3%, Legrand 7.3%, Hermès 5.5%, LVMH 5.1% and Crédit Agricole 4.8%. A few stocks nevertheless managed to do well. Thalès gained 4.3%, Cap Gemini 3.4%, STM 3.3%, Saint Gobain 3%, Accor 2.3% and Michelin 1.6%.
Concerning the results season, the results appear mixed. Of the 91% of S&P500 companies that reported, 75% beat expectations, with profits 4.3% above estimates. Profits should therefore grow by 5.3% in the third quarter (compared to 4.3% at the end of September). On the other hand, companies which have missed the consensus are generally penalized more than the average.
Graphically, the CAC40 confirms its very clear underperformance against the United States and is quickly approaching its lows at the beginning of August. In the absence of preservation of the current zone, the index could return towards 7130/7000 points.
