Since the opening, the Paris Bourse has oscillated between a symbolic rise (+0.3% at 3:30 pm) and a slight downturn, unable as on the previous day to initiate a rebound that would hold up after five consecutive sessions of decline.
The CAC40 index was up by a maximum of 0.4% (to 7,100), then down by 0.4% (to 7,045 around 11:15 this morning), and is drifting within a range of barely 60pts, in skeletal volumes (950MnsE traded 6.5 hours).
Wall Street's downward reopening further complicated the buyers' task, with -0.1% on the Dow Jones (6th consecutive decline), -0.2% on the S&P500 and -0.5% on the Nasdaq (led by Micron with -3.5%).

Fear of the effects of interest rates 'maintained at high levels for an extended period' has recently dampened investors' appetite for risky assets (equities) because of their implications for growth (the US '10-year' is now anchored above 4.65%).

'Signals remain negative for the time being, with the possibility of breaking the symbolic 7,000-point level', warn technical analysts at Kiplink Finance.

The first estimate of German inflation for September came in at +0.3% (same score in August), for a 12-month rise of 4.5% (vs. 4.6% expected): not enough to get Bunds excited, as their yield exploded by +10.8pts to a new annual record of 2.94% (and 2.955% at the top).
Our OATs are also pulverizing their peaks, with +11pts to 3.505%, and Italian BTPs are blowing everything out of the water with +15.3pts to 4.93%.
How the Euro-Stoxx50 manages to scrape up +0.2% in these conditions is no mean feat.

The day's US figures do little to lighten the mood for bonds: unsurprisingly, Q2 GDP is revised downwards once again, from +2.2% to 2.1% (final).
The good news is that core inflation is down to 1.7% from 2.2%... the bad news is that, with WTI at $95 a barrel on Wednesday evening, this decline will not last.

The other bad news is that the job market - closely watched by the FED, which wants to see unemployment rise - remains very resilient: the Labor Department revealed that registrations rose by just 2,000 to 204,000 at the end of the week of September 23 (economists were expecting an average of 215,000 jobless registrations).
The third piece of bad news is that the four-week moving average, considered a more reliable indicator of the underlying trend in the job market, fell by -6.250 to 211,000.

Market attention will turn to inflation tomorrow, with the publication of a first estimate of the eurozone consumer price index for September.

Investors will then take note of the PCE index, a crucial measure of inflation in the United States, at a time when the price of a barrel of Brent crude oil is getting dangerously close to the $100 mark (propelling Total Energie to an all-time record above 64.5E).

On the oil market, Brent is now consolidating -1% towards 95.5 after peaking this morning at over $97.6, a new high since autumn 2022 (1% off the peaks of October 10 and November 8 2022), while WTI is up 1.5% at $95, before falling back towards $93 (-0.8%).

Rate fears have so far relegated the threat of a US government shutdown this weekend to second place.

Strategists warn that such a scenario could, however, have a severe economic impact, as the US is currently facing several headwinds (resumption of student loan repayments, auto strikes, rising gasoline prices).

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