Paris (AFP)

The Paris Bourse struggled (-1.10%) to savor the beginnings of freedom found in France Wednesday at midday, feverishly awaiting clarifications on the position of the US Federal Reserve (Fed) on inflation.

At 12.35 p.m., the CAC 40 index continued to lose ground, falling by 69.69 points to 6,283.98 points, after two consecutive sessions of decline in a market environment focused on the evolution of prices and the destabilization of cryptocurrencies.

"A few hours before the publication of the minutes of the April meeting of the Fed, the specter of an acceleration in inflation forcing the Fed to intervene continues to worry investors," said Franklin Pichard, director of Kiplink Finance.

"In this context marked by doubts, the operators seem to relegate to the background the second stage of deconfinement in France", where life is also resuming in cinemas, theaters, museums and outdoors in cafes and restaurants, he continues.

Thus, the minutes of the last monetary meeting of the Fed will be the center of attention at 8 p.m., while the speeches of certain members of the American central bank seem to be less categorical in recent days on the perfectly transient side. inflation.

Investors fear in the short term that the Fed will readjust its monetary support on which the stock indexes have been based to rise for almost a year.

For the time being, market operators are rather anticipating a slowdown in asset purchases for the end of 2021-beginning of 2022.

These concerns are reinforced by an acceleration in price increases (+ 1.5% in April over one year) in the United Kingdom, a high since March 2020.

JCDecaux is on the rise

The title climbed 3.97% to 24.08 euros, reinforced by the rebound in activity that the group expects in the second quarter.

Restrictions linked to the Covid-19 pandemic continued to weigh on activity in the first quarter, with the turnover of the French display advertising giant falling 37.2% to 454 million d euros, a figure higher than expected.

Total declines with crude prices

The heavyweight title of the odds suffered (-2.12% to 38.86 euros) from the fall in oil prices, leading in the wake of Vallourec (-4.88% to 29.24 euros) and CGG (- 3.24% at 0.87 euro).

© 2021 AFP