CAC 40 Inches Higher In Cautious Trade Ahead Of Fed Minutes
(RTTNews) - French stocks were seeing modest gains on Wednesday amid bets that cooler inflation will allow the European Central Bank (ECB) to start lowering borrowing costs sooner than the Federal Reserve.
After keeping borrowing costs on hold one last time Thursday, the ECB is expected to lay the ground for three or four rate cuts by the end of the year.
Investors also looked ahead to the U.S. CPI data and the minutes of the Fed's March policy meeting due later in the day for important clues on the Fed's rate trajectory.
According to the CME FedWatch tool, market participants currently price in about a 57 percent chance of a Fed rate cut occurring in June, compared with 49 percent earlier this week.
The benchmark CAC 40 was up 32 points, or 0.4 percent, at 8,080 after losing 0.9 percent the previous day.
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