CAC40: crosses 7300 pts, series of records on Wall Street

(CercleFinance.com) - The Paris Bourse closed the session with a gain of 0.
66% to 7,303 pts, driven by Renault (+4.8%), Dassault Systèmes (+3.7%) and Schneider Electric (+2.1%).

Across the Atlantic, Wall Street saw a wave of absolute records, with the Dow Jones (+0.6%) at 45,000, the S&P500 (+0.4%) at its zenith at 6,070, the Nasdaq on fire (+0.9%) at 19.660, 'hanging on' to the +30% mark for the year.

The day promises to be a busy one in terms of statistics, but also on the political front in France (vote & ongoing discussions on the motion of censure).

This morning, investors have already taken note of the HCOB composite PMI index for overall activity in the eurozone. This fell sharply from 50 in October to 48.3 in November (48.3 revised unchanged), signalling a return to contraction in the eurozone private sector.

In France, the HCOB PMI composite index of overall activity fell sharply (-2.2pts) from 48.1 in October to 45.9 in November, signalling the sharpest contraction in French private sector activity since January.

This afternoon, investors in the United States discovered the ADP private employment survey and the S&P Global PMI Composite: the private sector created 146,000 jobs in November in the United States, a number slightly below expectations, according to the monthly survey published by ADP on Thursday.

By way of comparison, economists were expecting an average of 158,000 private-sector jobs to be created last month in the US.
The number of jobs created in November was revised downwards, from 233,000 to 184,000.

In addition, growth in the US private sector accelerated slightly less than initially estimated in November, to 54.9, compared with a flash estimate of 55.3 and 54.1 for the previous month.

The revised composite index, which nonetheless remains at a 31-month high, reflects an expansion in overall activity that continues to be driven by services, while manufacturing output is again contracting.

This latter indicator will help determine whether the victory of Donald Trump, who has promised tax cuts, is generating a degree of optimism among business leaders.

In addition to macro data, the bond markets will be watching ECB President Christine Lagarde's speeches from Brussels, followed by Fed boss Jerome Powell's in New York, in order to anticipate the evolution of monetary policies on both sides of the Atlantic.

On the bond front, US Treasuries deteriorated by +2pts to around 4.242% on the 10-year bond yield. The Bund with the same maturity (+2Pts) is trading at around 2.07%, while the OAT remains stable at 2.901%, which is the day's pleasant surprise: the OAT/Bund spread has thus narrowed to +82Pts, compared with +88 on Monday.
The FOREX remains very calm, with the Euro gaining 0.1 to 0.2% against the greenback, at $1.0525.

In Asia, stock markets were hesitant on Wednesday in the face of the confusion reigning in South Korea, where parliamentarians rejected the martial law decreed by Yoon Suk Yeol to the surprise of all, in order to deal with supposed threats from "North Korean communist forces".

Oil prices are down slightly (after +2.5% the previous day) ahead of an OPEC meeting on Thursday, which is expected to refrain from making any major decisions in the current context of uncertainty.

Brent crude is down 0.6% to $73.2 following the publication of unsurprising data from the EIA. Data released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed that U.S. crude oil inventories stood at 423.4 million barrels in the week to November 25, down 5.1 million barrels on the previous week.

In news from French companies, Pierre & Vacances-Center Parcs reported a return to positive net income for its 2024 financial year at 29 million euros, after more than a decade of net losses, as well as an adjusted EBITDA up 27% to 174.3 million, above its guidance.

Google Cloud announced on Wednesday that it had entered into a strategic collaboration with Air France-KLM, which it will help to leverage its data through the use of generative AI tools.

TotalEnergies announced that it had signed an agreement with Swiss asset manager Partners Group to acquire VSB Group, a Germany-based developer of renewable projects, for 1.57 billion euros (equity and shareholder loans).

Finally, Schneider Electric announced on Wednesday the launch of a more compact UPS designed to power AI, data centers and large-scale electrical workloads.

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