Paris (AFP)

The Paris Bourse left room for doubt Friday at mid-meeting (-0.17%) after the short redoux in the trade talks between Washington and Beijing, investors remaining on the lookout for clear and concrete signals.

At 13:40 (12:40 GMT), the CAC 40 index fell by 9.76 points to 5,881.23 points, in a trade volume of 1.2 billion euros. The Parisian rating has been in the red since the opening, breaking with five consecutive sessions of increase.

For its part, Wall Street was moving towards an opening without much change. The Dow Jones Industrial Average index futures contract was up 0.07%, the broad-based S & P 500 index was up 0.03% and the Nasdaq, with a strong technological color, was down 0.04%.

"The optimism about Sino-US trade has eased before the weekend," said Michael Hewson, analyst for CMC Markets.

China had announced Thursday that it had agreed with the United States to lift "in stages" their additional tariffs they have imposed.

But "the agreement seems perhaps less certain than it was, the US administration is more reserved on a quick resolution," said Stéphane Déo, strategist at Bank Postale Asset Management.

"A mark of caution is needed as we have already been to the same point in the past to finally see both parties backtrack" for fear of losing face by making too many concessions and to attract critics in their country, says Hewson.

"This may explain why China and the United States have not tabled a date for a so-called phase-1 signing ceremony" to gradually break out of the dispute over the past 18 months, adds -t it.

On the other hand, confidence grew in trade relations between Washington and Europe, thanks to hopes raised by remarks by the outgoing President of the European Commission.

- Crédit Agricole lantern rouge -

Thus, Jean-Claude Juncker was persuaded in an interview that US President Donald Trump would not impose in the coming days new customs duties on the import of European automobiles.

In terms of statistics, investors are aware of the jump in household consumption in Japan (+ 9.5% year-on-year in September) and the rise in Germany's trade surplus in September.

Markets are waiting in the afternoon for consumer confidence in the United States.

At the bottom of the CAC 40, Crédit Agricole SA fell 2.19% to 12.30 euros, in the wake of the decline in net profit over the first nine months.

Natixis fell 6.77% to 4.05 euros after a quarterly net profit down 1.7% year on year.

Renault suffered (-0.67% to 47.12 euros) a decline in recommendation of RBC Capital Markets on the title.

Carrefour yielded 0.67% to 15.52 euros after receiving a "firm offer" from Shopinvest to buy 100% of the capital of its online sales site Rue du Commerce.

Euronext was penalized (-4.98% to 71.55 euros) by a net profit slightly below the market consensus while his boss denied rumors of discussions with another European player in the sector for a rapprochement .

Spie fell 3.96% to 18.41 euros after nine-month results in line with expectations.

PSA took 0.46% to 24.11 euros. His boss Carlos Tavares said he saw "no need to remove brands" in the future entity that will result from the planned merger with Fiat Chrysler (FCA).

Lagardère advanced 0.59% to 20.58 euros after a turnover of the third quarter, up 5.5%.

Marie Brizard Wine and Spirits (MBWS) jumped 10.25% to 1.76 euros, driven by a rise in recommendation to "neutral" against "sell" Bryan Garnier.

© 2019 AFP