The Paris Bourse (-0.6%) continues the consolidation it began in electronic trading on Tuesday evening, as soon as the (bad) results from Kering/Gucci were known.
A -0.8% decline was taking shape this morning, and has now eased despite Kering's -14.5% plunge (dragging LVMH -2% and l'Oréal -1% in its wake).
The impact of Kering and LVMH on the Euro-Stoxx50 is undeniable, with the index losing 0.2% (back to the 5,000 mark), while Frankfurt gains +0.25% to 18,020

The wait-and-see attitude prevails on Wall Street, which is virtually unchanged after 1 hour of trading (less than 0.1% difference in absolute terms), as we await the US Federal Reserve's monetary policy decisions, due to be announced at 7pm.

The Fed will issue a statement this evening, which will be closely studied by market participants in an attempt to get an idea of when the central bank will decide to cut rates.

Market operators will be closely scrutinizing the Washington-based institution's announcements in search of precise clues as to the timing of the next round of monetary easing.

The Fed's Chairman, Jerome Powell, will also be speaking at his traditional press conference.

Traders currently see a 60% probability that the Fed will cut rates in June, according to the CME Group's FedWatch barometer, but their optimism could be challenged after the meeting.

Investors will be paying particular attention to new rate forecasts, the so-called "dot plots", with the risk that expectations of the next rate cut will once again be postponed.

"The median scenario should still point to three rate cuts in 2024, but only just," warn Bank of America strategists.

For many analysts, the Fed is being forced into inaction by the good performance of the US economy, which is accompanied by a reawakening of inflation.

"Both the Fed and the ECB would like to see further disinflation before they start cutting rates", points out Amaury d'Orsay, Head of Bond Markets at Amundi.

Given the recent trend in underlying U.S. services inflation, it makes sense for them to be patient", continues the manager.

Traditionally, investors prefer not to take strong buy or sell positions ahead of Fed decisions, so as not to get caught up in the wrong direction.

Christine Lagarde, for her part, declared on Wednesday that the main risk now would be to start cutting rates too late.

On the bond market, the yield on ten-year US Treasuries fell symbolically by -0.5Pt, just below the 4.30% mark, ahead of the Fed's decisions.
Yields on German Bunds of the same maturity and on our OATs eased by -1.5Pt to 2.434% and 2.8720% respectively.

Crude oil prices fell back slightly from their previous day's annual highs, pending the release of US crude inventories by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), scheduled for the afternoon.

With a -1.2% drop to $86.2, the price of a barrel of Brent seems to be reacting downwards after testing the $87 resistance level. U.S. light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) is down 1.3% at around $82.5, after approaching $83.5 on Tuesday, its highest level since the end of October.

On the value side, Kering (-14 to -14.5%) warned last night that its sales would fall sharply in the first quarter, weighed down by the underperformance of its Gucci brand, a warning that sent its share price down nearly 13% and dragged the entire luxury goods sector in its wake.

Citing a "difficult" economic environment, the group indicated that first-quarter sales should be down by around 10% on a like-for-like basis compared with last year.

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