Paris (AFP)

The Paris Bourse finally found its wits on Thursday and ended in small rise (+ 0.33%) a volatile session, during which it had momentarily panicked in the face of the explosion of new jobless claims in the United States .

The CAC 40 index gained 13.72 points to 4,220.96 points, in a sustained trade volume of 3.5 billion euros. The day before, it had ended in sharp decline (-4.30%).

The Paris market opened higher, then gave way to anxiety over the American unemployment figures, before recovering.

"Despite the doubling of jobless claims in the United States, the stock market is not shrinking," observed Yann Azuelos, portfolio manager at Mirabaud France, interviewed by AFP. Indeed, "the rebound in oil is a supporting factor on the indices", according to him.

Weekly claims for unemployment benefits in the United States registered a new record last week, with 6.6 million new claims, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

This is double the previous week, which was already a historic record.

A little before the close of trade on the Place de Paris, around 4:50 p.m. (2:50 p.m. GMT), oil prices soared by almost 30%. The sudden rebound followed a tweet from US President Donald Trump saying he expected a reduction of "about 10 million barrels" (per day) or more in Russian and Saudi production.

These volatility oscillations, which are "extremely linked to the spread of the virus, to petroleum, are not going to stop," he observed.

They will even be "more and more important as companies will be brought to suspend their forecasts of profits and even dividends", according to the expert.

The new coronavirus continued its cruel course, having already officially infected nearly a million people and claimed 48,000 lives.

More than 500,000 cases have been identified in Europe, the continent most affected, but it is the United States (215,000 cases) which are emerging as the new epicenter of the pandemic.

- Oil companies are popular -

In the field of values, the oil sector has rebounded in the wake of crude prices.

CGG jumped 20.63% to 1.00 euros, TechnipFMC 15.40% to 6.83 euros and Vallourec 15.10% to 1.17 euros. These three stocks formed the top three in the SBF 120 index.

Once again, many companies have abandoned one after the other any desire to make forecasts for this year, with very disparate effects.

Engie (-0.91% to 8.89 euros), announced the withdrawal of its forecast for 2020 and the cancellation of its dividend given the pandemic.

Veolia however ended up 1.64% to 18.59 euros, despite the suspension of its forecasts for 2020.

Dassault Aviation for its part gained 0.69% to 731.50 euros. In addition to the suspension of the 2020 forecasts, the group renounces to pay a dividend to its shareholders.

Finally, Renault finished break even (at 16.31 euros). Three of the group's unions have decided to sign a negotiated agreement with management guaranteeing 100% of their remuneration to employees who are unemployed because of the coronavirus.

© 2020 AFP