Paris (AFP)

The Paris Bourse was still struggling to catch a course (-0.06%) Thursday at midday, the optimism of the last sessions falling while the Sino-US trade negotiations appear at a standstill.

At 13:37 (1237 GMT), the CAC 40 index yielded 3.82 points to 5,903.27 points, in a trade volume of 945 million euros. The day before, he had finished down 0.21%.

The Paris Stock Exchange opened steady and continued to oscillate around the balance during the morning.

For its part, Wall Street was moving towards an opening slightly down. The index futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average index fell 0.12%, the index on the S & P 500 broad index of 0.16% and the futures on the Nasdaq, high technological color, 0.18% %.

"There has been a lot of media hype lately about progress (in Sino-US trade talks), but now it looks like talks have slowed down," said David Madden, an analyst at CMC Markets. .

Clearly, "the United States would like additional concessions on intellectual property rights before considering lowering its tariffs," he added. But "it is very unlikely that the Chinese government will act in this way as it has interest to play on the long time since US President Donald Trump will not be in the White House forever".

China said on Thursday that the lifting of customs surcharges was a prerequisite for any partial agreement with the United States on their trade war and that "in-depth talks" were taking place on this issue.

Donald Trump also said on Wednesday that he will soon release his decision on tariffs in the automotive sector, Europe being particularly exposed. Industrial sources suggest a possible postponement.

- Recommendation lowered for CGG -

On the indicators side, industrial production as well as retail sales slowed last month in China, while investment fell to at least 21 years, against the backdrop of a trade war with the United States.

Germany escaped official entry into recession with its gross domestic product up 0.1% in the third quarter from the previous quarter. Growth in the euro zone amounted to 1.2%, slightly better than the expected 1.1%.

In France, the rise in consumer prices finally slowed down in October, to 0.8% year-on-year, mainly because of a drop in energy prices.

In the United States are still expected producer prices for October.

Bouygues rose 1.55% to 39.21 euros, taking advantage of the recovery of its net profit in the third quarter, driven by its two main branches of activity, and the confirmation of its objective to improve its profitability throughout the world. year.

EDF gained 1.49% to 9.26 euros, with a turnover up 3.4% over the first nine months of the year, driven by production and marketing activities in France.

The group has also lowered its prospects for nuclear production for the year, now anticipating a restart of reactors at the Cruas (Ardèche) power station during the first half of December.

Bottom of the SBF 120, CGG suffered (-5.14% to 2.31 euros) a lowering of its recommendation to "neutral" against "outperform" previously by Exane BNP.

ArcelorMittal was down 2.14% to 14.88 euros. The European group will continue to run the Ilva steel plant in southern Taranto until May 2020, when the Italian justice will decide on its request for cancellation of its purchase, said a local industrial leader Wednesday.

© 2019 AFP