Will the Cac 40 sign the best summer in its history? Part of the answer lies in Jerome Powell’s speech on Friday afternoon at the Jackson Hole symposium. For the time being, it has gained 7.4% since June 30, including the last three sessions which have been rather gloomy. At mid-session, the flagship index is little changed (-0.04% to 6,359.63 points), in a trading volume of barely 535 million euros.
Along with the other major fundraisers on the planet, the Chairman of the American Federal Reserve (Fed) will take part in this major annual meeting, in Wyoming, by speaking on Friday at 4 p.m. Paris time. At this stage, the world’s largest economy is showing hardly any signs of recession: consumption remains robust and the job market is dynamic. But, at the same time, inflation, which is at the heart of the Fed’s mandate, continues to climb, reaching 8.5% year on year in July, and wage growth of 5.2% is good higher than the 3.5% that Goldman Sachs estimates is necessary to bring inflation back to target. Comments from other members of the Fed lead one to believe that Jerome Powell will confirm the institution’s desire to break inflationary pressures, and therefore the need to continue raising key rates for some time.
Gas is on the rise again in Europe
While waiting for this crucial meeting, investors will take note this afternoon of the trend in durable goods orders in July, promises of home sales and weekly oil inventories in the United States.
In Europe, too, there are concerns about energy prices. Of those of oil and especially those of gas. The latter continue to climb as winter approaches. The MWh of gas delivered to Rotterdam is back at 280 dollars, very close to its peak at nearly 300 dollars on Monday. Unheard of since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Moscow, through the gas giant Gazprom, continues to wave the red rag of closing the taps. Deliveries via the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline will stop for 3 days, at the end of August-beginning of September, officially for “maintenance”, but the market fears that they will not resume.
Vallourec boosted by Barclays
On the corporate front, Vallourec increased by almost 5%. Barclays raised its opinion of “online weighting” to “overweight” on the title of the equipment manufacturer of the oil industry with a target maintained at 17 euros. The action also benefits from the good performance of oil, above 100 dollars for Brent, OPEC + considering to reduce its production with the agreement in sight on the Iranian nuclear.
OVH loses 3.8%. The cloud specialist group’s executive vice president and chief financial officer will leave the company at the end of October. A recruitment process is underway.