Paris (AFP)

The Paris Bourse remained cautious Monday at midday (-0.77%), investors waiting for tangible evidence of the Sino-US partial trade agreement and being skeptical about the chances of reaching an agreement on the Brexit.

At 13:50 (1150 GMT), the CAC 40 index lost 43.59 points to 5.621,89 points, in a trade volume of 986.9 million euros.

The Parisian rating started slightly in the red, correcting more in the late morning before containing its withdrawal.

Wall Street was going on its side towards a slightly retreating opening. The Dow Jones Industrial Average index futures contract fell by 0.27%, the broad-based S & P 500 index by 0.27% and the Nasdaq, with strong technological color, by 0.33%.

"Stock markets in Europe are in the red in the face of a combination of [disappointing] Chinese statistics, new setbacks on the Brexit and a dip of optimism around the Sino-US trade situation that weigh on the trend," writes David Madden, Analyst at CMC Markets.

"Trump's deal seems to be going downhill, and the market is concerned that the United States and China are using a different language to describe the deal," said analyst Neil Wilson. from markets.com.

On Friday, Washington announced it has found a partial deal with Beijing in the trade war that has pitted them for more than fifteen months. The outline of this agreement remains to be clarified, but Donald Trump nevertheless assured that a text could be signed "over the next four weeks".

"The United States will not apply customs duties on Chinese imports this week, but the December tariff increase still holds," said Madden, who is waiting to "see to believe" the progress expected in this arm wrestling.

Caution is needed since in May, the same Chinese negotiators had made commitments in principle but had encountered opposition from Beijing. The outline of the treaty had not been signed, and the commercial war had begun again.

- ArcelorMittal to the trouble -

In this case, China, which has pledged to buy more agricultural products from the United States, has obtained in return that Washington renounces the increase of 25% to 30% punitive tariffs on 250 billion dollars of Chinese imports, which was to come into effect on Tuesday.

Further progress in the negotiations on intellectual property and financial services has been claimed by both parties, without further clarification.

In addition, investor sentiment was weighed down by the larger than expected decline in Chinese imports and exports in September, a sign that its economy is suffering the consequences of the commercial standoff.

The procrastination on the Brexit did not help the Parisian place either. London and Brussels were cautious Sunday on the odds of reaching a settlement agreement amicably. But Dublin said Monday that an agreement was "possible" before the deadline of October 31.

In addition, Brussels has promised to fight "to the end" to dissuade the Americans from imposing customs sanctions, decided in retaliation for subsidies granted to the European aircraft manufacturer Airbus, after the final green light of the WTO to the Americans.

On the statistical side, industrial production in the euro zone picked up again (+ 0.4%) in August compared to July, slightly better than expected by economists.

Sensitive to the commercial dispute, ArcelorMittal fell from 4.77% to 12.81 euros.

Bic lost 2.92% to 63.10 euros, penalized by the lowering of its forecast for 2019.

Total lost 1.73% to 45.61 euros, in a context of falling oil prices.

Faurecia sold 2.13% to 43.26 euros after signing a memorandum of understanding with German Continental to acquire the remaining 50% of the SAS joint venture created in 1996 for 225 million euros.

In contrast, Virbac was up 14.98% to 238 euros, boosted by the increase in its revenue growth forecast for 2019 and a positive commentary analyst at Jefferies.

© 2019 AFP