Paris (AFP)

The Paris Bourse advanced Thursday at midday, the unexpected rebound in Chinese exports pushing investors to optimism even if they keep in mind the Sino-American trade tensions.

At 12.57 pm, the CAC 40 index gained 0.72% (+31.74 points) to 4,465.12 points. The day before, it had finished falling (-1.11%).

The Parisian odds continued to gain ground after an opening in the green.

For its part, Wall Street was about to start rising. The futures contract on the flagship Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.17%, that of the broad S&P 500 index 1.32% and that of the Nasdaq, with a strong technological coloring, 1.42%.

China's exports experienced a year-on-year rebound (+ 3.5%) in April, despite the pandemic that is crippling the global economy.

"It is possible that these figures were supported by a huge demand for protective equipment and medical products, and if this is the case, then the situation is not so rosy as it suggests." tempers David Madden, analyst for CMC Markets.

Furthermore, the markets are exposed to the risk of increased trade tensions between China and the United States.

"With Donald Trump reigniting the trade war with China, a little scent of the past is coming back to us," said Frédéric Rollin, investment strategy advisor at Pictet Asset Management.

"The war rhetoric towards China, important for the American presidential election, is starting to pick up," he added during an online market update.

Washington continues to contemplate that the Covid-19 has spread from a laboratory in Wuhan, central China, which Beijing denies while rejecting the proposal for an international investigation. Donald Trump is threatening new customs duties.

While many Western countries are beginning to reopen certain parts of their economies, a backlash of the pandemic which would require new confinements is also to be feared.

The markets should more particularly "continue to question the strategy of American deconfinement, earlier in the cycle of the epidemic compared to the strategies implemented in Europe", writes Tangi Le Liboux, analyst at Aurel BGC.

Faced with a string of dying economic statistics, investors are counting on massive support from central banks.

Nevertheless, "it is possible that the crisis leaves more traces than the markets believe today", indicates Mr. Rollin, stressing that the United Kingdom is preparing to experience "the greatest recession since the beginning of the 18th century".

The Bank of England (BoE) indeed forecasts a historic fall of 14% of the gross domestic product in the United Kingdom this year. At the same time, it kept its key rate at 0.1%, a record low.

In the eurozone, the debacle continues: industrial production fell sharply in March over a month in Germany (-9.2%), a dark record since 1991, and even more in France (-16.2%).

Weekly requests for unemployment benefits in the United States will be followed in the afternoon.

- ArcelorMittal in the spotlight-

In the leading trio of the CAC 40, Carrefour gained 3.72% to 13.40 euros, followed by Kering (+ 3.09% to 446.90 euros) and ArcelorMittal (+ 2.58% to 9.81 euros ). The steel giant improved its operational performance but recorded a net loss of $ 1.1 billion in the first quarter, penalized by the slowdown in demand.

Legrand yielded 2.46% to 56.26 euros after having seen its net profit fall by 12.2% in the first quarter with the health crisis, and expected "a marked withdrawal" from its activity in the second quarter.

Air France-KLM fell 3.19% to 4.07 euros after a net loss of 1.8 billion euros in the first quarter and gloomy forecasts for the summer.

Trigano lost 2.79% to 66.25 euros after a net profit down 8.7% to 65.7 million euros in the first half of its postponed financial year 2019/2020.

Nexans climbed 5.90% to 34.46 euros after having "accelerated (its) cost reduction efforts" and "reinforced (its) transformation program".

© 2020 AFP