The Paris Bourse ended the session down 0.38%, at 6888 points, penalized in particular by declines in Teleperformance (-8.8%), BNP Paribas (-2.6%) and Kering (-2.2%).

The Paris index lost up to 1.2% shortly after the opening, before recovering to its equilibrium point at 3 p.m. and then losing ground again.

After its spectacular decline of the previous day (nearly 60% intraday), Worldline regained some of its color, and was the best performer on the CAC40 with +13.1%, ahead of STMicro (+4.9%) and Carrefour (+4.7%).

The day was marked by the ECB's monetary policy statement, which unsurprisingly validated the scenario of maintaining rates.

The markets were not expecting any surprises, but were rather hoping that the central bank would succeed in calming the prevailing nervousness triggered by the recent turbulence in the bond markets.

Another highlight of the session was the publication, at 2:30 p.m., of the first estimate of gross domestic product (GDP) for the United States in the third quarter.

U.S. GDP growth for the third quarter of 2023 is expected to "break the bank" at an annualized rate of 4.9% (compared with the 3.8 to 4% anticipated by the financial community, after final Q2 growth of 2.1%).

The Commerce Department, which publishes GDP and investment figures, points out that the apparent "boom" reflects an increase in inventories, while imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, rose.

Another closely watched variable, the Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) price index, rose by 2.9%, after 2.5% in Q2. Excluding food and energy prices, it rose by 2.4%, compared with a previous increase of 3.7%.

Another "pleasant surprise" was the fact that durable goods orders rose by more than expected in September, according to the US Commerce Department, after 2 months of consecutive declines, testifying to the dynamism of business spending.

These orders rebounded by 4.7% last month (against an expected +1.5%), following a 0.1% decline in August and a 5.6% drop in July, the Commerce Department announced on Thursday.

Orders for durable goods excluding aeronautics, considered a good indicator of business investment plans, rose by 0.5%, against a consensus of 0.3%.

The number of jobless claims in the USA rose by 10.000 in the week to October 16, to 210,000 from 200,000 the previous week (revised from the 198,000 initially announced), according to the Labor Department.

US T-Bonds are not reacting in a clear-cut manner, and are even easing (-4 basis points to 4.90%) as the rise in GDP has to be put into perspective due to 'technical biases' which are inflating the overall score. In Europe, the German 10-year bund is down to 2.84% and French OATs are hovering around 3.48%.

Note that the euro is conceding 0.3% against the greenback, at $1.0535/euro.

In the news for French companies, Danone now expects sales growth of between +6% and +7% like-for-like for the current year, compared with +4% and +6% previously, with a moderate improvement in current operating margin confirmed.

Atos (+10%) reports third-quarter 2023 sales of 2.59 billion euros, down 8.1% on a reported basis versus the same period in 2022, including a 3% organic decrease.

Satellite operator Eutelsat reports sales for its first quarter 2023-24 (ended September) of 274 million euros, down 4.7% on a reported basis and 0.8% on a comparable basis.

TotalEnergies saw its adjusted net income fall by 35% to $6.5 billion in the third quarter, where the consensus was for $6.2 billion, on adjusted Ebitda of $13.1 billion, down 33%.

TotalEnergies adds that it has signed agreements with the Aloys Wobben Foundation (AWS) to acquire the entire share capital of the German company Quadra Energy, which has a 9 GW 'virtual power plant'.
Air France-KLM announces that it has signed an agreement with GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes to extend and strengthen the commercial partnership that has united the two partners since 2014 for a further 10 years.

Lastly, Schneider Electric reports third-quarter 2023 sales of €8,789 million, representing organic growth of +11.5% and reported growth of +0.1%. The Group reaffirms its 2023 financial target: it is aiming for organic growth in 2023 adjusted EBITA of between +18% and +23%.

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