Paris (AFP)

The Paris Bourse ended on a negative note on Friday (-0.89%), as investors were reluctant to take risks, before a prolonged weekend in the United States, where profit taking continued on the stocks technological.

The CAC 40 index fell 44.45 points to close at 4,965.07 points.

The day before, it had ended down 0.44%.

This "lack of risk-taking" is a sign of caution on the eve of three days off in the United States (Wall Street will be closed Monday), underlines Laurent Le Grin, CEO at Degroofpetercam, interviewed by AFP.

Still, the US employment figures were rather positive: the US economy generated 1.4 million jobs in August and the unemployment rate fell to 8.4% in the same month, slipping back below 10% for the first time since April.

"This is clearly good news, as some analysts were expecting a significant slowdown in August due to an increase in cases of the virus in several states," comments John Plassard, investment specialist at Mirabaud Securities.

"This type of statistics will feed the theme of cyclical stocks and we could potentially see a continuation of profit taking on technology stocks," he continues.

Already undermined by the collapse of the day before, major technology stocks continued to decline on Friday, which weighed particularly on the Nasdaq index.

- Hope for a vaccine -

On the health front, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday that it did not expect a generalized vaccination against Covid-19 before mid-2021, while preparations for the distribution of a vaccine are underway. are accelerating in the United States.

Well placed in this vaccine race, the German pharmaceutical company CureVac announced on Friday that it had obtained a subsidy of up to 252 million euros from the German state, which is already its shareholder.

Russian researchers have for their part published a first study showing that their candidate vaccine against the coronavirus, Sputnik V, gives encouraging preliminary results.

"Investors are hoping for a vaccine" and "are less worried about a new general containment," summarize the experts from NN Investment Partners.

On the table of values, the companies most penalized by the Covid-19 crisis were picking up steam, such as the banking and travel sectors.

Societe Generale climbed 5.59% to 13.67 euros, BNP Paribas 2.97% to 37.23 euros, Crédit Agricole 2.75% to 8.67 euros and Natixis 3.53% to 2, 38 euros.

Accor (hotel industry) also did well (+ 3.32% to 27.11 euros).

The automobile industry has also made strong progress, whether from manufacturers like Renault (+ 4.46% to 24.45 euros) and Peugeot (+ 4.27% to 15.15 euros) or from equipment manufacturers like Faurecia (+ 5.25% to 40.88 euros) and Valeo (+ 4.89% to 28.31 euros).

In contrast, STMicroelectronics (-2.31% to 23.64 euros), Atos (-1.74% to 71.08 euros) and Worldline (-4.13% to 73.80 euros) fell sharply in the wake of the Nasdaq correction.

Pernod Ricard lost 3.02% to 141.30 euros, suffering from a drop in recommendation.

Suez gained 1.65% to 15.13 euros, despite the obstacles encountered by the proposed buyout of Veolia from Engie.

© 2020 AFP