CAC 40 Moderately Lower Ahead Of Fed Policy Announcement

(RTTNews) - French stocks are down in negative territory Wednesday morning with investors making cautious moves, reacting to earnings, and awaiting the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement, due later in the day.

The benchmark CAC 40 was down 46.40 points or 0.6% at 7,650.52 a few minutes ago.

Sanofi is down 3.4% and Eurofins Scientific is declining 2.4%, while Veolia Environment is lower by about 2%. Veolia Environnement reported first quarter EBITDA of 1.69 billion euros, a 5.5% organic growth from a year ago. Current EBIT was up 8.4%, to 915 million euros.

L'Oreal, Essilor, Air Liquide, Unibail Rodamco, TotalEnergies, Edenred, Bouygues, Michelin and Renault are down 4 to 1%.

Legrand is rising nearly 2.5%. Legrand S.A. (LGRDY), a French specialist in electrical and digital building infrastructures, reported Wednesday higher first-quarter profit, driven by strong revenue growth. Further, the company confirmed its fiscal 2025 guidance.

STMicroElectronics is gaining more than 1%. Carrefour, ArcelorMittal, BNP Paribas, Stellantis, Credit Agricole and Engie are up 0.3 to 0.7%.

In economic news, eurozone retail sales declined in March on falling food and non-food products turnover, Eurostat reported Wednesday.

Retail sales dropped 0.1% month-on-month in March, in contrast to the 0.2% rise in February. The pace of decline matched economists' expectations.

On a yearly basis, retail sales growth softened to 1.5% in March from 1.9% in February. This was slightly weaker than the forecast of 1.6%.

Retail sales in the EU decreased 0.1% month-on-month but increased 1.4% from the previous year.

Data from S&P Global showed the HCOB Construction PMI in France came in at 43.6 in April 2025, little changed from 43.8 in the prior month, indicating another sharp monthly contraction and extending the sector's downturn to nearly three years.

Meanwhile, France's trade deficit narrowed to €6.2 billion in March 2025 from €7.7 billion in February and compared to market expectations of €6.9 billion. This marks the smallest trade gap in three periods, as exports rose by 5.6% month-on-month to €52.6 billion. Imports grew by a softer 2.3% to €58.8 billion.