Paris (AFP)

The Paris Bourse remained well oriented Friday at mid-day (+ 0.45%), quietly waiting for a key speech from the President of the Federal Reserve (Fed) to discover new clues about its monetary policy.

Around 1:20 pm (1120 GMT), the CAC 40 index gained 24.32 points to 5,412.57 points in a trade volume of 594 million euros. The day before, he had finished down 0.87%.

The Parisian coast stayed in positive territory all morning without moving too much.

For its part, Wall Street was preparing to open slightly higher. The index futures on the index Dow Jones Industrial Average took 0.22%, the index on the index broadened S & P 500 0.36% and the one on the Nasdaq, high technological color, 0.36%.

"The session may be quiet until Fed Chairman Jerome Powell speaks," said Franklin Pichard chief executive of Kiplink Finance, stressing the "strong" expectations that this discourse arouses.

The president of the US central bank, will speak in the afternoon in Jackson Hole, in the United States, before the elite of central bankers and economists.

At a time when a US recession is feared, investors hope that Mr. Powell will adopt a conciliatory position.

"Mr. Powell has been under fire by President Trump's claims that the Fed is lowering its rates to weaken the US dollar and boost US exports, but he may highlight the bank's independence. choosing to deliver a neutral message, "said David Madden, an analyst at CMC Markets.

"After all, the unemployment rate is low, inflation is firm and retail sales are robust so there is a strong argument" for the Fed to wait before eventually acting, he said.

The next monetary meeting of the US Central Bank is scheduled for September 17 and 18 and the markets are expecting a further rate cut.

Apart from this monetary policy issue, investors were not very up to date, but important political issues remained in the background, particularly the trade war and Brexit.

- Adocia in the abyss -

On the indicator side, investors will monitor new home sales in July in the United States.

In terms of securities, a large majority of the CAC 40 securities were still in the green.

Technology stocks were doing well. Dassault System took the lead (+ 1.84% to 129.95 euros), followed by Capgemini (+ 1.54% to 108.55 euros). A little further behind, Atos was up 0.76% to 68.66 euros.

Luxury took on a few colors. Kering gained 0.32% to 432.20 euros, LVMH 0.60% to 363.25 euros and Hermes 0.26% to 619.60 euros.

Oil stocks were still lagging, weakened by lower crude prices. Total lost 0.17% to 44.32 euros and TechnipFMC 1.19% to 21.62 euros.

The pharmaceutical company Adocia plunged 29.17% to 14.52 euros, after being dismissed by an arbitral tribunal of its claims for compensation to his former US partner Eli Lilly, which he claimed $ 1.3 billion.

© 2019 AFP