Paris (AFP)

The Paris Bourse ended very slightly up 0.09% on Friday, in a low volume of trade that neither geopolitical tensions between China and the United States, nor the results of American employment have aroused .

The CAC 40 index climbed 4.39 points to 4,889.52 points, in a trading volume of 2.2 billion euros. Over the week, the rebound was clear, to 2.21%, but of less magnitude than the 3.5% drop observed the previous week.

The market has been evolving with "very low volumes" for several days, notes to AFP Mikaël Jacoby, head of continental Europe brokerage at Oddo Securities.

After the salvo of corporate results at the end of July, "many management companies are in minimal service" he notes.

According to the specialist, this situation could continue next week, in the absence of geopolitical or health developments.

It is therefore difficult to get this sluggish market to react. The afternoon, however, brought some rather positive news on the American employment front, with a more pronounced drop than expected in the unemployment rate, which stood at 10.2% in July, a decrease of 0.9 point compared to June.

Job creations slowed sharply compared to the previous month, with 1.8 million jobs created, against 4.8 million in June.

The restart of activity was indeed slowed down by the virus, which started again in a large part of the country.

"Donald Trump was therefore right in announcing that the employment figures would be better than expected," said John Plassard, investment specialist at Mirabaud. However, he also notes "the declining rate of participation" of the population in the labor market which "suggests that more and more Americans are left without any help."

Especially since the negotiations on the stimulus plan in the US Congress remain stuck. Faced with the political deadlock, the US president threatened to impose a presidential decree to extend additional aid for the unemployed and authorize a cut in the payroll tax.

The release of these figures allowed the market to put aside the growing tensions between the United States and China.

The Chinese video-sharing application TikTok threatened on Friday to take legal action against the United States after Donald Trump signed a decree the day before prohibiting any transaction "from persons under American jurisdiction" within 45 days. with its parent company ByteDance.

Similar action has been taken against the WeChat platform, which is owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent.

In terms of values, Airbus once again ended up 1.42% to 69.30 euros. Over the week, the stock gained more than 10%.

Hydrocarbon producer Maurel & Prom (-0.91% to 1.74 euros) announced on Friday that it had fallen into the red with a heavy loss in the first half due to the fall in crude prices, which also affected it. forced to pass significant depreciations.

© 2020 AFP