The Paris stock market lost almost 0.4% around 7520 points, penalized in particular by the downturn in the automotive sector, such as Renault (-6.4%) and Stellantis (-4.4%).

The Paris market thus marks a pause after setting several records since the start of the week, including a peak of 7559 points on Tuesday.

While the trend remains buoyed by hopes of a soft landing for the economy and forthcoming monetary easing by central banks, the favorable momentum of recent weeks seems to be waning somewhat.

For analysts at Capital Economics, the 'rally' currently being experienced by the major European stock markets could soon come to an end.

We believe that eurozone equity markets will find themselves in trouble as economic activity in the region weakens more than investors expect", warns the London-based research firm.

From a technical point of view, analysts at Kiplink Finance note that the bullish sequence underpinning the CAC 40 appears 'less sustained and slower'.

While European investors are displaying a more cautious optimism, the trend is the same on Wall Street, where markets are also starting to run out of fuel.

The New York Stock Exchange ended on a weak note on Wednesday evening, at the end of a session marked by the publication of the Federal Reserve's Beige Book.

The document emphasized that the banking crisis in March had weighed on financial activity, particularly in the San Francisco and New York regions, while also pointing to some decline in commercial real estate.

On the economic front, Thursday's session will be marked by the publication of the eurozone trade balance and the 'minutes' of the latest ECB meeting.

Also on today's agenda are the Philly Fed index, jobless claims, Conference Board leading indicators and old home sales, due out in the afternoon.

In the meantime, investors learned this morning that business sentiment in France deteriorated slightly in April 2023, for the second month running, according to the synthetic indicator calculated by Insee, which dropped one point to 102, but remains above its long-term average (100).

Market operators will also be keeping an eye on the day's numerous corporate results, following the mixed accounts unveiled last night by Tesla and IBM.

In French company news, L'Oréal last night reported Group sales up 13.0% to 10.38 billion euros in Q1 2023 on a like-for-like basis (i.e. at identical structure and exchange rates).

Renault Group reports sales growth of 29.9% for the first three months of 2023, reaching 11.5 billion euros, including a 29.7% increase in automotive sales to 10.5 billion. In terms of volume, sales for the "diamond-shaped" automaker rose by 14.1% to 535,000 vehicles, with sales in Europe up 27.3% in a market that grew by only 16.2%.

Getlink reports first-quarter 2023 sales of €506.9 million, up 126%, including 23% growth on a like-for-like basis, confirming its confidence in its ability to exceed EBITDA of €910 million in 2023.

Finally, for the first quarter of 2023, the Publicis communications group reported net income of 3.08 billion euros, up 10% on a reported basis, including positive currency and scope effects, as well as organic growth of 7.1%.

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