The Paris Bourse began the end of August with a consolidation of -0.4%, bringing the CAC40 back into contact with the 7,400 mark, a level tested for the 1st time on February 6 (which means that the CAC has been hovering around this pivotal price for almost 6 months, give or take 10 sessions).

After the least active "3 Witches" session in history on Friday (2.77 billion euros traded), the new deadline seems to be off to a similar start, with less than 850 million euros traded in 6 and a half hours.
The Euro-Stoxx50 is down -0.5% despite Wall Street's positive opening, and the Dow Jones (+0.3% to 35.340), 10th out of 11 for the S&P500 (+0.4%) and 9th out of 11 for the Nasdaq (+0.4% to 14,100).
The 'rebalancing' of weights within the Nasdaq was largely taken into account, as it did not give rise to any upheaval on Friday, nor on Monday when trading resumed.

The week promises to be a particularly busy one, with an avalanche of quarterly results interspersed with meetings of the major central banks on Wednesday and Thursday.

Publications from heavyweights Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta Platforms will be particularly closely scrutinized, as investors wonder about the stretched valuation of the Nasdaq index, which has jumped 34% since the start of the year.

Beyond the tech giants, many other sectors will be in the spotlight this week: automotive with GM and Ford, aerospace with Boeing, and energy with ExxonMobil.

But the week promises to be even crazier in Europe, where a number of heavyweights such as LVMH, Unilever Airbus, Stellantis, L'Oréal, TotalEnergies, Volkswagen and STMicroelectronics are scheduled to unveil their performances in the coming days.
The results of LVMH and L'Oréal will have the greatest index impact.

The week will also be marked by the US Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by that of the European Central Bank (ECB) on Thursday.

On the Fed side, a 25 basis point hike seems highly likely, despite recent progress in the fight against inflation.

The ECB, meanwhile, seems to have already decided on a rate hike, which should lead it to raise its key rates by a further 25 basis points next Thursday.

This morning, investors took note of the HCOB flash composite PMI index for overall activity in France. It fell to 46.6 in July (from 47.2 in June), a 32-month low, reflecting the sharpest downturn in private-sector activity since November 2020.

The picture isn't much brighter in Europe, with overall PMI down -1Pt to 48.9 (2nd month below 50) and 'services' PMI down from 52 to 51.1 (manufacturing PMI down -0.7Pt to 42.7, a long way from 50).
Bond markets are easing, which is quite normal given the day's poor figures, with our OATs erasing -5.5pts to 2.933%, Bunds -5pts to 2.3780% and across the Atlantic, T-Bonds serenely awaiting the FED meeting with -2pts to 3.819%.
The Dollar continues to 'recover' with +0.5%, while the Euro falls back to 1.1080 (-1.4% in one week).

In French company news, Stellantis announced on Monday that it plans to build a second battery factory ('gigafactory') in the USA, alongside Samsung, with start-up scheduled for early 2027.

Alstom announces that it has signed a contract with Railpool, a European rolling stock leasing company, for the delivery of 50 Traxx Universal multi-system locomotives, worth up to 260 million euros.

Plastic Omnium reports a 4.1% decline in net income (Group share) to €100 million for the first half of 2023, but a 16.9% increase in operating margin to €210 million, 'driven by historical activities and agile, dynamic cost management'.

Finally, TotalEnergies will acquire a 50% stake in Rönesans Enerji to develop renewable projects in Turkey, including the electricity market.

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