The Paris Bourse ended the session down 0.63%, at 8188 points, penalized in particular by declines in Safran (-1.8%), Schneider Electric (-1.6%) and TotalEnergies (-1.5%).

In the absence of catalysts, and after the recent peaks reached by the Paris index, investors are taking profits on their investments.

On the bond front, yields stabilized on Thursday, with our OATs and Bunds posting +2pts (vs. -11pts the previous day), 10-year T-Bonds rallying by +1pt, and the 2-year by +4pts to 4.774%.

The deterioration in T-bonds was slightly amplified after the release of a sharp rise in US import prices, due to a virtually generalized increase in the cost of imported goods.

On the statistics front, the Labor Department reported a +0.9% rise in import prices in April, following a 0.6% increase in March. This is their biggest increase since March 2022... a far cry from the +0.2% expected.

While rising petroleum product costs were the main reason for this higher-than-expected statistic, various categories of goods saw their prices rise, which could rekindle fears of persistent inflation.

Prices of imported petroleum products rose by 2.4% in April, following a 5.4% jump in March, but the increase also concerned industrial materials (+2.7%) and agricultural food products (+2.2%).

The 'Philly Fed' manufacturing activity index unexpectedly fell by -11pts to 4.5 after 15.5 in April (down towards 8 was anticipated), due in particular to the -20pt plunge in the 'new orders' component, which fell to -7.9 from 12.2 in April.
The 6-month business outlook remained relatively stable at 32.4 after 34.3 the previous month.

The employment sub-index improved to -7.9 from -10.7 in April, and the paid prices sub-index fell to 18.7 from 23.

On the real estate front, the Commerce Department reported a 5.7% rebound in US housing starts in April compared with the previous month, to 1,360,000 annualized.360,000 on an annualized basis, following a 16.8% decline in March.

Building permits for US homes - thought to foreshadow future housing starts - fell by -3% to 1,440,000 last month.440,000 last month.

Lastly, weekly jobless claims contracted by -10,000 to 222,000, suggesting a situation of 'full employment' which could push up wages.

Oil prices continued to rally in the wake of last week's announcement of a slight weekly decline in US crude oil inventories. Brent gained 0.2% to around $83 a barrel.
On the FOREX, after testing a high of $1.09, the euro fell back -0.15% to $1.087.

In French corporate news, automotive supplier Valeo reported that it had acquired 2,175,683 of its own shares on May 13, at an average price of almost 11.50 euros.

Vallourec reports first-quarter 2024 EPS of 0.43 euros, down from 0.66 euros a year earlier, and EBITDA (gross operating income) down 27% to 235 million euros, representing a margin down 0.2 points to 23.7% of sales.

Eurazeo announced assets under management (AUM) of 34.8 billion euros at the end of March 2024, up 8% year-on-year, including fee-generating assets (FPAUM) of 25.6 billion (+8% year-on-year).

Finally, Schneider Electric reported on Thursday that it had signed a tax credit transfer agreement with Silfab Solar, a Canadian manufacturer of solar panels.


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