(Paris) The Paris Bourse ended another volatile day down on Friday, with the mixed US monthly employment report failing to convince the US Federal Reserve to flex its willingness to withdraw support from the markets.
The flagship CAC 40 index lost 30.23 points to 6,765.52 points. Over the week as a whole, it rose 0.38% and 21.87% since 1er January.
As for the past week, volatility has been high on the Parisian coast. She opened up 1% and yo-yoed to finish sharply in the red on the close.
Investors have left out the Omicron variant of the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19 a bit to look at the monthly U.S. employment report.
This appeared at first glance “paradoxical”, notes Nicolas Lasry, manager at Meeschaert Amilton: while unemployment has continued to fall, the number of job creations, the most important indicator, has fallen far short of expectations. .
This news was initially not so badly received by investors, because it gave hope that the turn of the US Federal Reserve announced Tuesday could be softened.
President Jerome Powell had focused his speech a little more on the fight against runaway inflation on Tuesday, suggesting a sharper-than-expected reduction in his institution’s market support measures.
“If you think that this report will postpone the acceleration of monetary normalization mentioned by the chairman of the Fed [Banque centrale américaine] Jerome Powell, that would be a mistake, ”commented Jamie Cox, Partner at Harris Financial Group.
One of the Fed’s vice-chairmen, James Bullard, pleaded again after the report’s release for faster tightening, Lasry also noted.
For his part, US President Joe Biden assured that the recovery in employment was “very strong”.
“The market anticipates an acceleration of the withdrawal of support during the Fed’s December 15 meeting, which therefore leads to sales on technologies or large valuations”, which are the most sensitive to a rate hike, notes Mr. Lasry.
Cocorico for Dassault Aviation
The United Arab Emirates on Friday signed an agreement to acquire 80 Rafale fighter jets, the fighter plane built by three French groups, Dassault Aviation (+ 6.48% to 89.60 euros), which oversees 60% of the value aircraft, the electronics engineer Thales (+ 1.16% to 73.24 euros) and the engine manufacturer Safran (-3.41% to 98.66 euros).
Doubts about Valneva’s vaccine
The Franco-Austrian laboratory Valneva, whose candidate vaccine against COVID-19 is being examined by the European Medicines Agency, plunged 14.48% to 23.62 euros, after the publication of a study showing a weak immune response of the vaccine compared to its competitors, reports the US agency Bloomberg.
Weakened technology
Technology stocks suffered in the wake of the NASDAQ technology index, which dropped in the middle of the US session.
In a context of rising interest rates, investors normally shy away from technology stocks because they need to borrow at low rates to generate the growth on which their stock market valuation is based.
Capgemini lost 1.47% to 201.40 euros, Worldline 1.36% to 45.96 euros, and Dassault Systèmes by 1.22% to 51.63 euros.