Paris (AFP)

The Paris Bourse was trading close to equilibrium on Tuesday at midday (+ 0.10%), investors preferring to temporize against the Italian political turmoil, in a still dark context for global growth.

At 13:50 (1150 GMT), the CAC 40 index took 5.25 points to 5,377.10 points in a trade volume of 1.02 billion euros. The day before, it ended up sharply (+ 1.34%).

Since the opening, the Parisian coast is hesitant, alternating passages in the red and in the green.

For its part, Wall Street was preparing to open close to balance. The Dow Jones Industrial Average index futures contract nibbled 0.05%, the broad-based S & P 500 index 0.04% and the Nasdaq, high tech, 0.06%.

Italy is "in the center of attention", said Tangi Le Liboux, an analyst at Aurel BGC.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte could formalize Tuesday afternoon the thundering break between the League of Matteo Salvini and the Movement 5 Stars (M5S), which would open the way to different political scenarios.

In addition, "concern over the trade dispute between China and the United States, a possible recession in Germany and unrest in Hong Kong continues to weigh on the markets," said David Madden, analyst for CMC Markets.

"As long as these issues are not resolved, it is unlikely that the indices will go beyond their recent peak," he added.

On the indicators side, the agenda was hardly provided, but it will fill up in the coming days. Investors will be able to analyze on Wednesday and Thursday reports on the latest monetary policy meetings of the US Federal Reserve (Fed) and the European Central Bank (ECB).

Above all, they are waiting for a speech from Fed President Jerome Powell, expected on Friday, to have new clues about US monetary policy.

- Casino Bond -

Defensive stocks took a few colors, like Danone (+ 0.10% to 80.62 euros) and Pernod Ricard (+ 0.60% to 159.05 euros).

Cyclical stocks, sensitive to the economic situation, started in the red. ArcelorMittal dropped 1.82% to 12 euros, Eramet 1.33% to 38.70 euros and Aperam 1.12% to 20.23 euros.

The banking sector was also struggling (Crédit Agricole -1.02% to 10.18 euros, Societe Generale -0.65% to 22.24 euros and BNP Paribas -0.40% to 40.63 euros).

Casino climbed 5.56% to 37.80 euros. The group that had launched a plan for the sale of non-strategic assets more than a year ago, announced on Tuesday that it had identified "new asset sales for a target amount of € 2 billion", to be completed before end of March 2021.

Publicis sold 0.19% to 42.61 euros after the acquisition of the American company Rauxa, an independent marketing agency based in New York.

Amoéba fell 26.43% to 1.36 euros, penalized by the announcement of the withdrawal of its application for marketing in the United States of its biological disinfectant refrigeration systems, after the US authorities had found insufficient scientific data provided in support of his request.

© 2019 AFP