The flagship CAC 40 index lost 58.98 points to 5,941.26 points around 11:15 a.m. on this national holiday Thursday, a public holiday usually marked by low trading volumes, which can amplify upward and downward variations. .

The day before, the CAC 40 had closed in the red, at -0.73%, at the end of a session where the markets were sounded by the American CPI price index, higher than expected.

Markets now have their eyes on central banks.

Will they decide to raise their rates even harder at their next meeting to regain control of inflation, at the risk of killing economic growth?

Several institutions have already reacted with more well-known rate hikes for several decades, such as in Canada where the central bank on Wednesday raised its key rate by one percentage point.

Investors are increasingly eyeing a similar trajectory for the US Federal Reserve (Fed).

In comparison, the European Central Bank (ECB) seems to be lagging behind in the eyes of the markets, blocked in its ability to act by European economic weaknesses linked to the war in Ukraine, in particular tensions with Russia over energy.

“The points of tension go beyond the shortage of natural gas in Germany and affect the European energy market as a whole, which is currently going through a deep crisis,” warns Stephen Innes, analyst at SPI Management.

Thus, the European Commission on Thursday lowered its growth forecasts in the euro zone for 2022 and 2023, to 2.6% and 1.4% respectively, against 2.7% and 2.3% anticipated so far, due to of the growing impact of the war in Ukraine.

And Brussels raised its forecast for consumer price inflation in the euro zone to 7.6% in 2022 and 4% in 2023, from 6.1% and 2.7% previously.

The price of European benchmark natural gas, the Dutch TTF, fell Thursday morning by 1.53% to 177.75 euros per megawatt hour, around 08:50 GMT, far from offsetting an upward trend since June.

The euro is another sensitive topic in the European market.

After briefly plunging below the symbolic threshold of one dollar on Wednesday, it moved slightly above the parity threshold at 1.0023 dollars (-0.36%) around 08:50 GMT.

Bouygues down

The operator Bouygues Telecom was in the red at -1.5% (27.50 euros) in the wake of the largest European telecommunications company, the German Deutsch Telekom, down 2.50% after the announcement of the sale of 51% of its mobile towers to American investment funds.

Bad course for Atos and its three musketeers

After the announcement of the resignation of outgoing CEO Rodolphe Belmer on Wednesday, the IT giant Atos, which is trying to regain the confidence of its shareholders, warned that it would now be led by a trio, responsible for implementing the split of the company presented mid-June.

Around 10:50 am, the title of the company fell by 3.07% to 10.74 euros per share.

© 2022 AFP