Paris (AFP)

The Paris Bourse fell 0.10% in mid-session Thursday, weakened by pessimistic comments from the boss of the US central bank after a meeting, and confused by speculative movements in the wake of the Gamestop case in the United States.

The CAC 40 index lost 5.28 points to 5,454.34 points the day after a drop of 1.16% and the biggest fall on Wall Street since October.

On Thursday, Wall Street was heading for a sawtooth opening: Futures pointed to a decline of 0.18% on the Dow Jones and 0.67% on the Nasdaq, while the S&P 500 prepared to rise 0.12%.

"Uncertainty about the economic outlook remains significant," said analysts at Aurel BGC.

At the end of a meeting Wednesday, the Fed diagnosed a "weakening" of the activity of employment in recent months and a "long way before a full economic recovery".

While the figure for the recession for 2020 in the United States is due to be released today, the Fed forecasts a contraction of 2.5%, as in 2009, according to an estimate published in December.

However, some economists are even more pessimistic.

The culprit of this situation, the Covid-19, is still struggling to be contained.

More than 18,000 deaths have been recorded in 24 hours in the world, a new record, according to a count made Wednesday in the middle of the day by AFP from the reports communicated by the health authorities.

Also widely commented on by market participants as one of the sources of the ambient apathy, the consequences of the Gamestop affair, which fascinates as much as it frightens the financial world.

A group of stock marketers in the United States, eager for risky financial bets, won their battle against very seasoned investors who bet down on the American title.

The title has soared by more than 1,000% since the start of the month.

In the wake of this case, "very large investment funds have sold shares (...) to absorb the losses recorded on securities on which they had bet down", summarizes Michael Hewson, chief analyst for CMC Markets UK.

The consequences of this affair are closely scrutinized because it caused high volatility on other companies subject to downward bets, including the French Klepierre and Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, which jumped by more than 21% Wednesday and fell about 3% shortly after opening Thursday.

STMicroelectronics sees its profit rise

The manufacturer of electronic components STMicroelectronics (+ 5.49% to 33.26 euros) saw its net profit rise by 7.2% in 2020 to 1.11 billion dollars, supported in particular by global demand for semiconductors.

Elior dives

The group catering Elior (-13.49% to 5.07 euros) posted the biggest losses of the SBF 120 after having published a turnover down by almost 28% in the first quarter of its postponed fiscal year 2020 / 2021.

Valneva prepares her vaccine

The Franco-Austrian biotech (+ 5.04% to 9.59 euros) announced Thursday that it had initiated the production of its candidate vaccine against Covid-19, still in clinical trials, in order to optimize its schedule of potential deliveries.

© 2021 AFP