CAC 40 Edges Higher; ECB Policy In Focus

(RTTNews) - French stocks moving higher Thursday morning with investors digesting preliminary GDP data and corporate earnings news, and awaiting the European Central Bank's monetary policy announcement later in the day.

Eurozone GDP data is also due later in the day.

The European Central Bank is widely expected to lower interest rates again. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve left its key rates unchanged and noted inflation remains "somewhat elevated" and reiterated its strong commitment to returning inflation to its 2% objective.

The benchmark CAC 40 was up 32.56 points or 0.4% at 7,905.04 a few minutes ago.

Schneider Electric and Teleperformance are gaining 2.5% and 2.3%, respectively. Legrand, Sanofi, ArcelorMittal, Saint Gobain, Kering, Carrefour, Thales, L'Oreal, Vinci and Stellantis are up 1 to 1.7%.

Michelin, Accor, Capgemini, Pernod Rircard and Unibail Rodamco are modestly higher.

Shares of semiconductor company STMicroElectronics are down nearly 8% on weak results. The company announced that its net income for the fourth-quarter was $341 million, compared to $1.076 billion in the year-ago quarter. The earnings per share has also decreased to $0.37 compared with $1.14 in the prior year.

The net revenue dropped to $3.32 billion from $4.28 billion last year's quarter, the company said, adding that its expects first-quarter net revenue to decline 24.4% sequentially to $2.51 billion.

Eurofins Scientific is declining nearly 3%, while Essilor and Orange are down 0.7% and 0.4%, respectively.

The French economy contracted for the first time in nearly two years in the fourth quarter as the positive impact of the Paris Olympics and Paralympic Games faded, official data revealed Thursday.

Data from the statistical office INSEE said France's fourth-quarter gross domestic product shrank 0.1% sequentially after expanding 0.4% in the third quarter, according to first estimate.

This was the first quarterly fall since the March quarter of 2023, when GDP fell similarly by 0.1%. Detailed data for the fourth quarter is due on February 28.

In 2024 as a whole, GDP grew 1.1%, the same pace of growth as seen in 2023 and 2.6% in 2022.

Another data from the statistical office INSEE showed that household spending grew by more-than-expected 0.7% in December after a 0.2% increase in November. Consumption was expected to rise 0.1%.