After gaining up to 0.5% at midday, the Paris Bourse ended the session with a more anecdotal gain of 0.13%, at 8102 points, divided between the good performances of Capgemini (+2.7%) and Publicis (+1.9%) and the declines of Eurofins Scientific (-3.6%) and Teleperformance (-2.8%).

The Paris index reversed course in the wake of the US indices, which opened on new all-time highs (the 26th for the S&P500 at 5,340) before slipping back into the red.

The Dow Jones lost between -0.7% and -0.8%, while the S&P gained 0.1% behind the Nasdaq (+0.6%), which benefited from the performance of Nvidia, which gained almost +10% towards $1.045, i.e. +$230 billion in additional capitalization (to $2,600 billion, i.e. 25 times its sales)

The American giant Nvidia, which has consolidated its status as the world's third-largest capitalization behind Microsoft and is now hot on the heels of Apple ($2,928 billion in 'capi'), is set to post a +100% rise since the start of the year if the stock holds above $1,000 at the close.

Nvidia weighs as much as all the multinationals making up the DAX40 index (the German economy has a GDP of E4,008 billion), or as much as Amazon + Tesla (which have much higher sales).

Nvidia didn't disappoint with its quarterly results', which is good news', stresses Christopher Dembik, Investment Strategy Advisor at Pictet Asset Management.

'It's been a long time since the global economy has been so dependent on a single company', reminds the analyst (Nvidia is quite simply +1.325 billion in additional 'capi' since January 1, or 90% of the S&P500's performance).

'For the stock markets, Nvidia should continue to be a must-have this year, and probably in the years to come', he adds.

Nvidia's performance has pushed into the background the concerns arising from the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest meeting, which contained a number of unpleasant surprises: dissension over strategy, and the feeling that the inflation problem is far from being solved.

According to the CME Group's FedWatch barometer, the probability of a rate hike in September is now estimated at less than 50%, compared with 51.6% yesterday.

On the US data front, growth in the US private sector accelerated sharply in May, according to S&P Global's composite PMI, which rose to a 25-month high of 54.4 on a flash estimate, compared with 51.3 on a final estimate for the previous month.

S&P Global points out that the 'services' sector is driving this increase, with the strongest growth in output for a year, but that the manufacturing sector is also showing more vigorous growth.

New home sales fell by 4.7% in the USA in April (sales are down 7.7% on an annualized basis), according to statistics published by the Commerce Department on Thursday.

These came to 634.000 last month on a seasonally-adjusted annualized basis, compared with a revised 665,000 in March.

The median price of a new home reached $433,500 in April, compared with $439,500 the previous month, and the average level was $505,700, below the $527,400 recorded in March.

Finally, the Labor Department announced a drop of -8,000 (to 215,000) in new US jobless claims.

The four-week moving average - more representative of the underlying trend - came out at 219,750, an anecdotal rise of 1,750 on the previous week.

On the bond front, the yield on 10-year Treasuries edged up +6.5pts to 4.50%, its worst level of the week.
In Europe, the deterioration observed the previous day continued, with +7pts on our OATs at 3.097% and on Italian BTPs at 3.904%, and +7.3pts on Bunds at 2.6070%.

In Europe, the HCOB composite PMI flash index of overall activity in the eurozone rose from 51.7 in April to 52.3 in May, signalling a third consecutive monthly increase in the region's private sector activity levels.

In France, the HCOB flash composite PMI index of global activity fell for the first time since the beginning of the year, dropping from 50.5 in April to 49.1 in May, and thus returning to contraction territory after a brief return to growth.

The dollar weakened on Thursday, relinquishing its previous day's gains (-0.3% against the euro to $1.0860/E).
Tight interest rates penalized gold, which digested its recent record highs and settled at $2,345, in line with its May 15 levels.

In French company news, Stellantis announced on Thursday the launch of the second tranche of its share buyback program for 2024, up to a maximum of one billion euros.

The Mauritian Prime Minister's Office has awarded the Thales-led consortium the contract to set up a national identity system. The aim of this project is to improve the services offered to citizens and to reinforce the security of their identity.

Lagardère announces the appointment of Grégoire Castaing as the Group's Deputy Managing Director (DGA) in charge of finance and member of the Executive Committee, with effect from June 3.

Airbus UpNext, an Airbus subsidiary, has launched Cryoprop, a new technology demonstrator to develop superconducting technologies for the electric propulsion systems of future hydrogen-powered aircraft.

Thales announces the renewal of its agreement to support the military reserve, thus reaffirming its commitment to the French military reserve and the armed forces in general, having increased the number of reservist employees by a factor of six since 2006.


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