(BFM Stock Exchange) – The Parisian index ends this session from Thursday, July 31, in a clear decline, while investors had plenty of time to dissect an avalanche of business results. The Fed, it, opted for a status quo on its rates, despite the differences of two of its members.
The Paris Stock Exchange faced the most loaded day of its year. Its largest index, the CAC 40, dug its delay over the day, losing 1.14% to fall back under 7,800 points, at 7,771.97 points. Throughout the month, the Parisian star index won 1.38%.
Investors dissected the announcements of the American Federal Reserve (Fed) which opted for the status quo on its guiding rates on Wednesday evening, to the Dam of Donald Trump. However, two of its members (Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman) have spoken out against this maintenance, which had not happened since 1993.
“If these votes are involved in a context of increased political pressure from the Trump administration for a more flexible monetary policy, they also reflect the accumulation of clues signaling a slowdown in the American economy,” notes Allison Boxer, of Pimco.
Fears for spirits
Economists point out that the president of the Fed, Jerome Powell, adopted a more restrictive tone at the press conference he held in the wake of these announcements.
“Powell did not seem impressed by the strong pressures in favor of an immediate drop in rates, made restrictive remarks and gave no new indication on the future development of rates,” observes Barclays. “We maintain our forecast for a decrease of 25 basic points (0.25 percentage points, editor’s note) this year, in December,” added the bank.
Which did not fail to irritate Donald Trump again who attacked Jerome Powell by calling him “stupid”.
“(Jerome Powell) is too late, and in reality, too pissed off, too stupid and too political to occupy the post of president of the Fed. It cost our country to billions of dollars, in addition to one of the most incompetence, even corrupt buildings, of construction history! The American president was on his social social network.
The market also continues to follow the latest information on customs duties before the August 1 deadline, when the United States will apply important customs surcharge on countries or group of countries with which they have not concluded. Donald Trump announced that he would impose 25% customs duties on Indian imports on Friday to sanction the country to have oil and Russian military equipment.
In addition, according to European diplomatic sources cited by Reuters, European wines and spirits will undergo American customs duties by 15% from August 1. France hoped that these products could benefit from an exemption.
At Wall Street, the American clues evolve up, supported by Meta and Microsoft two, of the magnificent seven whose results impressed, carried by artificial intelligence.
Microsoft flambé 4.4% to Wall Street and exceeds $ 4,000 billion in market capitalization., Becoming the second company to cross this threshold after NVIDIA, on July 9.
Meta is not to be outdone and leaps by more than 11% after delivering results higher than the expectations in the second quarter and communicated a target of income significantly above the consensus for the third quarter.
Many disappointments
Investors have therefore dissected a plethora of corporate publications. Accor dropped 9.60% after delivering income and growth in its disappointing network.
Sanofi lost 7.8% while its net profit per share turned out to be lower than analysts’ forecasts in the second quarter.
Bouygues also sanctioned heavily by the market (-7.3%) after revealing mixed results.
Conversely, Société Générale climbed 6.9% so the bank exceeded the expectations in the second quarter, noted its objectives and announced a program of share buybacks of 1 billion euros.
Safran, which also enhanced its annual prospects, jumped 3.1%. Legrand has advanced 13% after raising his margin target for the current year.
Excluding CAC 40, Wendel (-10.8%), FDJ United (-8.2%), Eramet (-7.9%) or Ipsen (-7.25%) are sanctioned by the market. Conversely, Air France-KLM takes off (+4.6%).
In other markets, the euro takes 0.2% against the dollar at 1.1428 dollars. Oil is retreating. The October contract on the Brent de Mer du Nord advances 1.35% to $ 71.95 per barrel while the September on the WTI listed in New York is falling from $ 69.10 to a barrel.
Sabrina Sadgui – ©2025 BFM Bourse
