CAC 40 Modestly Lower In Cautious Trade

(RTTNews) - French stocks are moving in a narrow range in cautious trades Wednesday morning amid lingering uncertainty about the Trump administration's trade policies.

It is feared that the United States' spat with China, the second largest economy, will significantly hurt global growth outlook and adversely impact corporate earnings.

The benchmark CAC 40 was down at 22.85 points or 0.29% at 7,883.55 a few minutes ago.

Renault is down more than 2.5%. Vivendi, STMicroElectronics, Pernod Ricard and Michelin are lower by 1.5 to 1.8%.

BNP Paribas, Legrand, LVMH, L'Oreal, Stellantis, Schneider Electric, Edenred, Thales, Veolia Environment and Bouygues are declining by 0.5 to 1%.

TotalEnergies is up 1.1%. The company raised dividend and maintained the pace of share buybacks despite reporting a drop in fourth-quarter earnings.

Lender Credit Agricole is gaining 1.5% after reporting better-than-expected earnings on higher revenue in the final quarter of 2024.

Publicis Groupe is gaining 2.3% and ArcelorMittal is up 1.1%, while Unibail Rodamco is advancing 0.75%.

In economic news, the HCOB France Composite PMI for January 2025 was revised down to 47.6, from the flash estimate of 48.3, just above December's 47.5. That marks the fifth consecutive monthly contraction in output.

Both manufacturing and services contributed to the downturn in economic activity in January, with manufacturing sector declining at a slower pace. The manufacturing PMI came in with a score of 45 for January, compared to 41.9 in December 2024. The services PMI came in at 48.2 for January, down from 49.3 in December.

France's industrial production fell 0.4% month-on-month in December 2024, following a downwardly revised 0.1% increase in November. The drop was driven by a 0.7% contraction in manufacturing output.

The HCOB Eurozone Composite PMI rose to 50.2 in January of 2025 from 49.6 in the previous month, in line with the preliminary estimate and ahead of expectations of 49.7.

The services sector PMI came in at 51.3 for January, down from 51.6 in December 2024, while the manufacturing sector PMI score came in at 46.6, compared to 45.1 in December.