The Paris Bourse is slowing its pace a little with 40 minutes to go: the gain is around +0.6 to +0.7% versus +1.1% this morning (test of 7,480), but remains resolutely up on the eve of the "3 Witches" session.
The CAC40 is now 100pts from its all-time high of April 20 (the weekly gain is close to +1.2%).
The Euro-Stoxx50 gains a little over 1.1% towards 4,366pts, thanks to the Dax (+1.2%).

Wall Street got off to a slightly less flamboyant start (after +1.2% the previous day), with the Dow Jones gaining 0.2%, the S&P500 +0.65% and the Nasdaq +1% (to 12,630pts).
Hopes of a deal on the debt ceiling revive: 'Joe Biden said there was an "overwhelming consensus" that a debt default was not an option, after the meeting of negotiations to raise the US debt ceiling' according to Liberum.

The CAC40 advances to around 7.470, within 100pts of its all-time high of April 20 (the weekly gain is around +1.2%), while the CAC40 'GR' (22,250) is just 0.5% from its zenith at 22,345: a new record could be set tomorrow.
Trading remains anecdotal on this Ascension Thursday (950MnsE traded in 6 hours).

No data published this morning in Europe, so attention is focused on stats from the United States: sales of existing homes fell by 3.4% last month compared with March, to an annualized rate of 4.28 million (CVS), according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
The median sales price fell by 1.7% year-on-year to $388,800, and the inventory of unsold existing homes represented 2.9 months at the current clearance rate, compared with 2.2 months in April 2022.

The index of leading indicators continued to decline in April (-0.6%) for the 13th consecutive month, according to the Conference Board.
Between October 22 and April 23, the index fell by 4.4%, a decline that is tending to accelerate since it was limited to 3.8% over the previous six-month period (April-October 22).

Wall Street will try to cling to a figure that is "less worse than expected": the Philly Fed index came in at -10.4 after -31.3 in April (consensus expected a figure of -19.8).
US jobless claims fell by 22,000 in the week to May 8, to 242,000 compared with 264,000 the previous week.
The four-week moving average - considered a better indicator of the underlying trend in the job market - came in at 244,250, down by 1,000 week-on-week.
Finally, the number of people receiving regular benefits fell by 8,000 to 1,799,000 in the week to May 1, the last week available for this statistic.

The quarterly results of the world's number one retailer, Walmart, came as a pleasant surprise, with an increase in its sales forecasts, and the stock gained +2%.
A bad day for bond markets, however, with OATs up by almost +12pts to 3.035%, Bunds up by +8pts to 2.43%, Italian BTPs up by +12pts to 4.308%... and T-Bonds tightened by +7Pts to 3.65%

On the Paris stock front, Ipsos announced the acquisition of Shanghai Focus RX Research, which should significantly strengthen its pharmaceutical research expertise in China and create a favorable environment for its healthcare business.

Aéroports de Paris reports a 26.2% increase in traffic to 26.2 million passengers in April 2023, i.e. 97.9% of traffic for the corresponding period in 2019 (i.e. before the health crisis that severely affected air transport).

Trigano jumped more than 10%, the day after publishing net income of 121.7 million euros for its first half of the year, compared with 141.3 million a year earlier, with operating profit before non-recurring items up from 179.3 to 173.4 million.Business conditions in the Philadelphia region improved in May, the regional Federal Reserve's monthly survey showed on Thursday.

Copyright (c) 2023 CercleFinance.com. All rights reserved.