After a day of respite for Labor Day, the Paris Stock Exchange begins the month of May as it ended April, that is to say in the red. The market takes note without reacting of the stagnation of weekly unemployment claims in the United States at 208,000, compared to an anticipated increase of 211,000.
Shortly before 3 p.m., the Cac 40 lost 0.6% this Thursday to 7,936 points in a business volume of 1.1 billion euros, with STMicroelectronics, TotalEnergies and Stellantis in the biggest declines, from 2% to 3, 4%.
Wall Street, which ended in mixed order yesterday, should gain between 0.5% and 0.9% depending on the indices at the opening. Relief prevails after the Federal Reserve’s announcements. Unsurprisingly, the Fed funds rate target was maintained in the range of 5.25% to 5.5% in which it has been since July, but it was Jerome Powell’s press conference that turned out to be the most interesting. While the Fed president indicated that the status quo could last longer than expected, he refused to consider the possibility of another turn of the screw.
Apple sales in China, a crucial issue
“ The exceptional performance of US growth and inflation in the first quarter suggests that the Fed will exercise patience before considering easing, and that it will spend the second quarter regaining confidence in disinflation. We believe the downward trend in inflation has been delayed, but not derailed “, argues Whitney Watson of Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
Additional information on the health of the US economy will be provided in the April jobs report tomorrow. Let’s not forget Apple, whose results for its second quarter at the end of March, scheduled for this evening, will offer investors an assessment of the degree of resistance of the iPhone manufacturer to the fall in its sales on the Chinese market. “ What investors are waiting for now are plans for how Apple will integrate artificial intelligence into its devices and catch up (…) Therefore, if investors are convinced that Apple has a solid plan on AI, we could see a positive reaction to otherwise weak quarterly results », Estimates Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank.
This time, it goes for Teleperformance
Qualcomm could gain 6.5%, according to pre-market guidance, as the chipmaker delivered better-than-expected adjusted profit and provided optimistic sales and profit targets for the current quarter.
In Paris, the Teleperformance call center group jumped 10.5% after reporting growth in its first quarter revenue above expectations. ArcelorMittal, up 1.7%, saw its gross operating surplus fall but less than expected, to $1.96 billion.
Excluding the flagship index, Worldline gained 12% and Imerys 13% following, respectively, better than expected quarterly turnover and Ebitda.
