CAC 40 Up Over 0.5% As Stocks Move Higher On Results, Easing Trade Tensions

(RTTNews) - French stocks are up in positive territory on Wednesday, with investors digesting a slew of earnings announcements and regional economic data, and picking up stocks amid easing concerns about trade tensions.

According to media reports, China had quietly compiled a list of U.S.-made goods exempt from its 125 percent tariffs - seeking to ease trade tensions without public concessions.

U.S. President Donald Trump said he believes the U.S. will have a deal with India on trade.

The White House has also had "substantial talks" with Japan, and "the contours of a deal" with South Korea could be coming together, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.

The benchmark CAC was up 40.47 points or 0.54% at 40 7,596.34 a few minutes ago.

Edenred is rising nearly 9%. Sanofi is gaining 2.6% and Teleperformance is advancing 2.3%. Pernod Ricard, Eurofins Scientific, Airbus, Thales and Bureau Veritas are gaining 1.7 to 2%.

Michelin, Stellantis, Legrand, Orange, Schneider Electric and Safran are up 1 to 1.5%.

ArcelorMittal is declining nearly 5%. Credit Agricole is down 3.7%. The banking major reported net income of 2.17 billion euros for the first quarter of its current fiscal, down 9.2% from last year's 2.38 billion euros. Net pre-tax income, however, grew 1.6% to 3.40 billion euros from 3.35 billion euros last year.

Societe Generale is down marginally. Societe Generale reported significantly higher profit in its first quarter with growth in revenues. The group's net income stood at 1.61 billion euros for the quarter, higher than prior year's 680 million euros. Adjusted Group net income was 1.42 billion euros in the quarter.

TotalEnergies is lower by about 2.7% on weak earnings. The company's bottom line came in at $3.851 billion, or $1.68 per share. This compares with $5.721 billion, or $2.40 per share, last year.

Excluding items, TotalEnergies SE reported adjusted earnings of $4.192 billion or $1.83 per share for the period. The company's revenue for the period fell 7.2% to $52.254 billion from $56.278 billion last year.

BNP Paribas, Hermes International and STMicroElectronics are modestly lower.

Air France-KLM Group is gaining nearly 4% after reporting narrower net loss in its first quarter, while EBITDA, a key earnings metric, increased from last year,

Looking ahead, for 2025, the French airline continues to expect capacity growth of 4% to 5% compared to 2024, despite uncertainty.

In the first quarter, net loss - Group part was 292 million euros, compared to loss of 522 million euros a year ago. Loss per share was 1.16 euros, narrower than prior year's loss of 2.04 euros.

In economic news, consumer prices in France rose 0.5% month-on-month in April 2025, the largest increase since last August, and exceeding forecasts of a 0.3% rise, driven by higher prices for services, especially transport, and food, data from INSEE showed.

The annual inflation rate in France held steady at 0.8% in April, unchanged for the third consecutive month, as expected, and remaining at its lowest level since February 2021. On a monthly basis, consumer prices rose by 0.5%, the largest increase since last August, and exceeding forecasts of a 0.3% rise.

Producer prices in the French domestic market decreased by 0.6% month-over-month in March 2025, following a downwardly revised 0.4% fall in the previous month. On a yearly basis, producer prices dropped by 0.6% in March, easing from a downwardly revised 1.2% decline in February.

Eurozone economic growth accelerated in the first quarter, preliminary flash estimates from Eurostat showed.

Gross domestic product expanded 0.4% sequentially, faster than the 0.2% growth seen in the fourth quarter of 2024. Economists had forecast the economy to grow again by 0.2%. Year-on-year, economic growth held steady at 1.2% in the first quarter. This was also stronger than forecast of 1%.