After hovering around its equilibrium point throughout the session, the Paris Bourse ended the day with a modest gain of 0.18%, at 7992 points, at the end of a session marked by high trading volumes, with close to 8 billion euros traded since the opening.

Although the Parisian index lost more than 1.2% over the past week, it has maintained a gain of nearly 6% since the start of the year.

The week's most eagerly-awaited figure, the US PCE index (and incidentally Eurozone inflation), turned out to be a non-event, insofar as its publication led to barely measurable variations in stock market indices - and frankly marginal variations in bonds.

Wall Street, which had reopened in the green - for the sake of symbolism - with indexes up by a handful of points, is now heading more sharply downwards, with the S&P500 at -0.4%: it is now down 1.3% for the week, but has gained more than 4% in May.

The Nasdaq, which opened at 16,750, is now down -1.2% at 16,540, reducing its monthly gain to less than 6% from +7% on Thursday evening.
The Dow Jones is the only one to remain positive, with a gain of less than 0.1% at 38.150, but only +0.5% over the past month.

T-Bonds are also easing by a handful of basis points, with the 10-year at 4.50% vs. 4.554% on Thursday (the consensus for a 1st rate cut in September is up from 45% to 50%).

The PCE price index - the most closely watched by the Fed - showed annual inflation for April to be stable compared with March, at 2.7% gross and 2.8% core (or underlying excluding energy and food), in line with consensus.

The Commerce Department, which publishes these figures, also reported that US household spending rose by 0.2% in April compared with the previous month (+2.65%/1 year), while incomes rose by 0.3% (in line with expectations).

There were also inflation figures for Europe: the provisional estimate of May CPI inflation in France was unchanged at +2.2%.

This morning, investors also took note of price trends in the eurozone as a whole: the 'CPI' is estimated at 2.6% in May 2024, reflecting an acceleration in consumer price inflation following a rate of 2.4% the previous month, according to Eurostat's 'flash estimate'.

On the Forex front, the euro recovered +0.2% against the dollar to $1.085/E and Brent crude oil traded at $81.6/barrel (-0.3%).

In Paris stock news, Renault Group announced the official launch of HORSE Powertrain Limited, its 50/50 joint venture with Chinese carmaker Geely, specializing in engines and transmissions.

Sanofi reports that the CHMP of the European Medicines Agency has adopted a positive opinion on the approval of its Dupixent in the EU as an add-on maintenance treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Finally, Orange announced yesterday the completion of the merger between Orange Romania S.A. (ORO) and Orange Romania Communications S.A. (OROC) through the integration of OROC into ORO.
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