Paris (AFP)

The Paris Bourse fell 0.61% Thursday, ending a series of four straight bullish sessions in a very calm market in the height of summer.

The CAC 40 index lost 30.93 points to finish at 5,042.38 points. However, it has remained sharply higher since the start of the week.

"The market is in a consolidation phase", observes Christopher Dembik, head of economic research at Saxo Bank.

"The big events are behind us," adds the expert, citing the results of companies in the second quarter and the lack of imminent expectations from investors regarding the action of central banks.

In this context, and while many stock market players are currently on vacation, volumes have fallen sharply since the start of the week.

This sometimes tends to exacerbate certain stock market movements, in one direction or the other.

Expected as one of the only events of the day, the statistics on new jobless claims in the United States did not bring the markets out of their torpor.

Enrollments fell last week, dropping below the million mark for the first time since March, according to figures released by the Labor Department.

While Paris closed lower, Wall Street hesitated for its part: the Dow Jones lost 0.18%, the Nasdaq gained 0.78% and the S&P 500 0.04%.

The Covid-19 pandemic continued to be a hot topic, having killed more than 750,000 people worldwide since its discovery in China in December, according to a count made by AFP from official sources on Thursday.

"If the pandemic will occupy investors for a while, the panic still present in the spring is no longer felt," said Milan Cutkovic, analyst at AxiCorp.

"Investors are anticipating further massive economic stimulus and assume that the expansive monetary policy in Europe and the United States will continue for a long time," the expert adds.

Natixis rose 1.05% to 2.95 euros after the increase in its recommendation to "overweight" by analysts at Barclays.

Luxury stocks, which represent a large weight in the CAC 40 index, were one of the few companies to advance Thursday: Kering gained 0.60% to 506.70 euros, Hermès 0.57% to 708.60 euros . LVMH finished in equilibrium.

© 2020 AFP