The CAC 40 index gained 2.75 points to 7,541.58 points around 10:10. On Thursday, it dropped 0.14% after having hung the day before a new record at 7,599.35 points.

The French economy recorded "its strongest expansion in almost a year", according to the PMI for April published Friday by the agency S&P Global, supported by services while the manufacturing index was disrupted by strikes against the pension reform.

But across the Atlantic, the economic picture is less encouraging. New weekly jobless claims rose more than expected, manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia area fell to the lowest since May 2020, and existing home sales contracted.

Indicators, all worse than expected, which pushed the indices of the New York Stock Exchange into the red Thursday.

Added to this were statements by the chairman of the Federal Reserve's regional office in Philadelphia. "I anticipate that further tightening may be necessary" to reach a level that is restrictive enough to effectively slow economic activity and ensure that high inflation falls into the nails, Harker said.

Then, "once we reach that point, which should happen this year, I expect us to keep rates at that level and let monetary policy do its job," the official said.

For Sebastian Paris Horvitz, director of research at Banque Postale AM, "the cyclical inflationary surge will require the maintenance of restrictive monetary policies for some time to come". This would be bad news for the economic situation since rate hikes are intended to lower inflation by slowing the overheating of the economy.

"The justice of the peace on the direction of monetary policy will largely be the extent of the economic slowdown," Horvitz said.

EssilorLuxottica in shape

The global optical giant EssilorLuxottica jumped 5.08% to 184.44 euros, the day after the publication of a turnover up sharply in the first quarter and above analysts' forecasts.

Solutions 30 sees red

The Solutions 30 share fell 16.17% to 1.87 euros after the publication of the annual results of the group which recorded a net loss of 50.1 million euros in 2022, larger than estimated by analysts polled by Bloomberg, against a profit the previous year.

Ipsos badly received

Ipsos shares fell 10.95% to 49.02 euros after the group specializing in market and opinion research reported a decline in revenue in the first quarter, well below analysts' expectations.

Fnac Darty is located in Portugal

The specialist in the distribution of household appliances, electronics and cultural products recorded stable sales in the first quarter of 2023, at 1.78 billion euros, and announced Thursday an acquisition in Portugal, where it intends to strengthen its status as number 2.

Its share fell 3.66% to 33.74 euros.

© 2023 AFP