The flagship CAC 40 index gave up 0.29% or 20.80 points to 7,188.20 points around 09:45. On Tuesday the index had finished slightly up 0.11%.
"Markets are uncertain ahead of next week's Federal Reserve and European Central Bank meetings, especially after the Reserve Bank of Australia raised rates again yesterday (Tuesday) after it had previously announced a pause," said Xavier Chapard, a member of the research and strategy team at La Banque Postale AM.
On Wednesday, investors will listen to the speeches of the vice-president of the European Central Bank (ECB) and a member of the monetary institution.
Meanwhile, in China, exports contracted in May by 7.5% year-on-year, the first decline since February, according to customs figures reported Wednesday by the Xinhua news agency. This decline is much more pronounced than expected by analysts surveyed by Bloomberg (-1.8%).
"High inflation and the rise in interest rates" in Europe and the United States "have seriously penalized demand" for products assembled in China, Guillaume Dejean, macro and foreign exchange analyst for the financial group Convera, said in late May in a note.
The Asian giant's imports also fell last month (-4.5%) year-on-year, a sign that domestic demand is still struggling to recover. However, this is a less pronounced contraction than that of April (-7.9%) and the forecasts of analysts polled by Bloomberg (-8%).
"All in all, China's recovery seems to continue but only thanks to consumption and therefore with a limited scale and breath," said Xavier Chapard, who added that "this explains why the Chinese authorities are starting to slightly increase their support for the economy, without however announcing massive stimuli".
Stellantis continues on its way
The car manufacturer Stellantis (-0.26% to 14.71 euros) announced Wednesday the launch today of the second tranche, of 500 million euros, of its share buyback program of a total of 1.5 billion euros, announced on February 22, after having already completed a first tranche of the same amount. The transaction will end "no later than September 7" and the repurchased shares will be canceled, according to a statement.
© 2023 AFP