French stocks are drifting lower Wednesday morning, shifting to reverse gear after successive days of gains. Fears of fresh tariffs by the U.S. after President Donald Trump spoke about the possibility of a 25% levy on imports of automobile, semiconductors and pharma products from April, weigh on sentiment.
Trump, continuing with his aggressive stance on trade, reiterated that U.S. will charge reciprocal tariff to trading partners which would be ‘no more, no less’ levied by other countries.
Higher bond yields also appear to be keeping keeping investors on edge.
The benchmark CAC 40, moving in a very narrow range between 8,185.36 and 8,208.67, was down 16.16 points or 0.21% at 8,190.40 a few minutes ago.
Hermes International is declining nearly 2.5%. LVMH, Kering and Saint-Gobain are down 1.2 to 1.6%.
Renault, L’Oreal, Capgemini, Eurofins Scientific, ArcelorMittal, Air Liquide and Edenred are modestly lower.
STMicroElectronics is rising nearly 5.5%. Engie is gaining about 1.5% and Thales is up by a little over 1%. Vivendi, Veolia, Publicis Groupe, TotalEnergies, Dassault Systemes, Stellantis and Carrefou are up with modest gains.
Market Analysis
CAC 40 Edging Lower In Cautious Trade
2025-02-19 10:00:22
