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Paris (AFP)
The Paris Stock Exchange sank into the red on Wednesday mid-day (-1.29%), the health crisis taking precedence over the improvement of the manufacturing sector in Europe and China.
At 12.54 p.m., the CAC 40 index lost 63.65 points to 4,872.24 points. The day before, it had finished down slightly by 0.19%.
The Parisian coast opened to equilibrium before sinking into negative territory.
Wall Street was preparing for its part to open in retreat. The futures contract for the Dow Jones Industrial Average index fell by 0.62%, that of the broad S&P 500 index by 0.44% and the highly technological Nasdaq by 0.27%.
“The recent series of good cyclical indicators in the first two world economies is no longer enough and remains subject to the management of the health crisis by the States”, states Franklin Pichard, managing director of Kiplink Finance.
Day after day, investors are forced to scrutinize the balance sheets of Covid-19 contaminations on which the continuation of the economic recovery depends, fearing a second wave of the epidemic.
The world’s largest economy is experiencing a resurgence of coronavirus in its southern states and its daily death toll from the pandemic started to rise again on Tuesday.
Another alarming health situation is that “public health officials around the world are taking a closer look at the swine flu situation in China after human cases of infection have been reported,” said analyst David Madden. CMC Markets.
Investors were thus restricting risk taking before a series of American data including job creation in the private sector, the weekly report on oil stocks and the minutes of the meeting of the Fed’s monetary policy committee of June.
The macroeconomic picture, however, continues to gradually clear up.
In China, manufacturing activity registered its highest level in more than six months in June, a sign of the revival of activity in the country.
In Europe, the acceleration of domestic demand “supports the recovery of the PMI indices” and in the United States, “the ISM manufacturing index known this afternoon should show the improvement of the situation in June although its scope is limited by the health situation, “says Pichard.
But on the diplomatic level, the tension persists between China and the United States. The US foreign chief has threatened Beijing with further reprisals, deploring a “sad day” for Hong Kong after the adoption by China of a new national security law.
“Relations between the United States and China have changed and will remain extremely complicated regardless of the outcome of the American elections,” said Benjamin Melman, managing director of Edmond de Rothschild AM.
– Accor slides –
The biggest drop in the CAC 40, Accor fell 4.67% to 23.08 euros. Its CEO Sébastien Bazin, who reduced his fixed compensation by a quarter by solidarity during the Covid-19 crisis, may on the other hand receive two and a half times the amount of it, in the long term, in the form of shares of performance.
Airbus sank 2.99% to 61.66 euros the day after the announcement of the abolition of about 15,000 positions, or 11% of its workforce.
Michelin increased its losses (-2.82% to 89.74 euros). The rating agency Moody’s has withdrawn its short-term rating (Prime-2) on the security.
Suez, which forecasts an organic drop in turnover of 6% in the first half, lost 2.59% to 10.17 euros.
The automotive sector was bogged down although the French market recovered in June. Renault fell 4.74% to 21.50 euros and Peugeot lost 2.45% to 14.13 euros.
© 2020 AFP
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