CAC40: clear easing of interest rates triggers 1 shower of records

(CercleFinance.com) - The Paris Bourse looks set for a new record closing price, with +0.
2% and close to 8,250 with 30 minutes to go.
The clear easing of interest rates, on a scale quite unexpected in Europe (-10Pts), is having a beneficial effect, and new records have already been broken by the FT-100 in London (+0.4% to 8.460), Frankfurt (+0.8% to 18,860), and the Euro-Stoxx50 (+0.3% to 5,095/5,100).

On Wall Street, US indices posted gains ranging from +0.5% to +0.9% (Nasdaq), enough to propel the S&P500 (+0.7% to 5,283) and Nasdaq into record territory, with the possibility of establishing a double close/intraday.

That's exactly what we were hoping for this morning, before the release of the CPI (US consumer price index).

Inflation came out perfectly in line with expectations, and in all its components, making this "most awaited figure of the week" a perfect "non-event".

As expected, CPI slowed slightly in April (by 0.3% vs. +0.4% in March) to 3.4% year-on-year, after 3.5% in March.

The underlying Core CPI index (excluding energy and food products) rose by 0.3% month-on-month, compared with 0.4% in March and a consensus of 0.3%, to 3.6% year-on-year, after 3.8% in March.

These figures tempered concerns over the acceleration in producer prices, but did not completely dispel Jerome Powell's call for patience on Tuesday, as inflation will take some time to return to the 2% mark.

It was a day of 'unsurprising figures', as industrial activity contracted again in May in the New York region, but only by a token amount: the New York Federal Reserve's Empire State index came in at -15.6, compared with -14.3 last month.
The new orders sub-index worsened to -16.5, compared with -16.2 in April, as did the number of employees component, which came in at -6.4 after -5.1 last month.

US retail sales were flat on a sequential basis in April, at $705.2 billion, although the slowdown in consumption across the Atlantic is tending to be confirmed, and this also reassures on the inflationary outlook.

Still on the statistics front, but in Europe this time, CVS GDP during the first quarter of 2024 rose by 0.3% in the eurozone and the EU, compared with the previous quarter, according to the flash estimate published by Eurostat, the European Union's statistical office.

Furthermore, in March 2024, seasonally-adjusted industrial production rose by 0.6% in the eurozone and by 0.2% in the EU, compared with February 2024, according to estimates by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

On the bond front, the yield on 10-year US Treasuries eased sharply, by -8pts to 4.366% (ditto on the '2-year') following the publication of the US inflation report.

German Bund yields of the same maturity eased by 11pts to 2.43%, our OATs by -12pts to 2.928%, and BTPs erased -15pts to 3.735%.

It's the best session since mid-April on the fixed-income markets: the Dollar falls -0.4% to 1.08650/E, and this changes the game as the Euro becomes short-term bullish against the greenback, which breaks important lows (the '$-Index' falls -0.4% to 104.60, a 'low' since April 10).
Quite logically, gold rises in contact with $2,380/Oz.

In French company news, emeis (ex-Orpea) reports first-quarter 2024 sales of ?1.37 billion, up 11.3%, including organic growth of 9.6%.

Air France-KLM reports that it has successfully placed ?650 million in bonds with a five-year maturity and a coupon of 4.625%, under the Euro Medium Term Note program, in line with the transactions announced earlier this week.

Last but not least, Renault has announced a partnership with Chinese start-up WeRide to develop a range of fully autonomous vehicles for public transport. Le Losange has initiated a new collaboration with its partner with a view to the large-scale commercial deployment of vehicles displaying a level of autonomy known as 'L4'.

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