Boursorama

(AOF) – Friday, the price of a barrel of American WTI showed a weekly decline of 1% to 86 dollars following reaching 81.9 dollars on Tuesday, its lowest level since mid-January. The September 5 announcement by OPEC and its partners, including Russia, to cut production was not enough to stem the decline in oil prices. These are now lower than they were when Russia invaded Ukraine in February. The oil market is penalized by the fear of a drop in demand in the wake of the deterioration of the global economic outlook.

PARIS (Archyde.com) – Sycomore Asset Management, a minority shareholder in Atos, wants the resignation of the group’s chairman, Bertrand Meunier, and the replacement of the oldest members of the board of directors by specialists in the sector, told Archyde.com Cyril Charlot, founding partner of the management company.

Sycomore AM considers the Atos spin-off project to be too ambitious and too complex, he added.

Atos did not react immediately.

Sycomore AM owns between 0.5% and 1% of the capital of Atos.

The IT and cybersecurity group is going through a period of turbulence and has struggled to reassure investors in recent months, marked by two changes at its head and the downgrading of its credit rating to BB by the rating agency S&P at the mid-July.

Atos’ stock price has fallen 75% since the start of the year and its market capitalization has fallen below one billion euros, according to Refinitiv data.

Atos had announced almost simultaneously in June a plan to split its activities before probable disposals and the departure of its managing director, Rodolphe Belmer, leading to a new movement of mistrust on the stock market and the anger of some of its shareholders.

Bertrand Meunier, chairman of the board of directors, has been the target of criticism since the group’s financial collapse.

(Report Julien Ponthus and Mathieu Rosemain, French version Sophie Louet, Marc Angrand and Nicolas Delame)

PRAGUE (Archyde.com) – France and Germany plan to introduce a national minimum corporate tax if the European Union fails to reach an agreement on the matter, the two countries’ finance ministers said on Friday.

Hungary opposes the adoption by the EU of a minimum tax on corporations of 15%, which would have made it possible to implement within the bloc this project drawn up at the global level.

France and Germany have taken the initiative within the EU by deciding to introduce a minimum tax from 2023.

“We strongly support a European approach. We are trying to convince all member states, and especially one in particular,” German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said ahead of a meeting of EU finance ministers in Prague. , alongside his French counterpart Bruno Le Maire.

“We have taken the decision to introduce minimum corporate taxation in Germany if there is no European agreement on this, and I think others will be open to a similar approach.”

According to Paris, European countries must find a way to adopt the draft minimum corporate tax rate, without waiting for Hungary.

According to Hungary, this project might harm the European economy, which is suffering from runaway inflation and a growing energy crisis, with Russia reducing its gas deliveries, which is also reflected in a spike in oil prices. electricity.

Bruno Le Maire said that it was necessary to show “justice” in times of economic crisis, which implies a rapid implementation of the plan which has already been drawn up for several years. National-level solutions will be considered if cooperation proves impossible, he added.

“Now is the time to make this decision, we shouldn’t discuss it,” Le Maire said. “We should decide and implement this minimum corporate tax by next year,” he said.

(Report Jason Hovet; French version Dagmarah Mackos, edited by Jean-Michel Bélot)

by Claude Chendjou

PARIS (Archyde.com) – The main European stock markets are expected to open on an undecided note on Friday following the European Central Bank (ECB) raised rates the day before and the President of the United States Federal Reserve pledged to fight inflation.

According to the first indications available, the Parisian CAC 40 should fall by 0.01% at the opening and the Dax in Frankfurt by 0.06%. The FTSE 100 in London, however, might gain 0.28%. The EuroStoxx 50 index is expected to fall by 0.03%.

The ECB decided on Thursday to raise the cost of credit by an unprecedented 75 basis points, while hinting that its monetary tightening would continue, thus prioritizing the fight once morest inflation despite the risk of a recession in the euro zone this winter.

In the United States, where a rate hike of the same magnitude is expected on September 21, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said on Thursday that the Fed would continue to act “strongly” to counter inflation.

On the markets, the probability of a rate hike by the Fed of three quarter points is now 86% once morest 77% the day before.

The prospect of an acceleration in the cost of credit both in the United States and in Europe did not frighten the equity markets on Thursday, even if a certain volatility remains.

“There is a lot of uncertainty and I think investors won’t make up their minds until they see the light at the end of the tunnel,” said Grace Lee, portfolio manager at Columbia Threadneedle Investments.

Analysts say the ECB and Powell announcements are not really a surprise and are already priced in, leading investors to now turn to monthly US consumer price figures and the definitive statistic inflation in August in the euro zone, two new economic data which will be published next week.

The ECB also reaffirmed that the future trajectory of its key rates would remain dependent on economic data.

Friday’s session might also be driven by the gas crisis as a council of EU energy ministers meets in Brussels as EU countries seek emergency solutions to soaring energy bills.

A WALL STREET

The New York Stock Exchange ended higher on Thursday, thanks to the support of banks and health stocks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.61%, or 193.24 points, to 31,774.52 points.

The broader S&P-500 gained 26.31 points, or 0.66%, to 4,006.18 points.

The Nasdaq Composite advanced for its part by 70.23 points (0.60%) to 11,862.13 points.

IN ASIA

At the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the Nikkei index ended on a gain of 0.53% to 28,214.75 points and the Topix, broader, took 0.4% to 1,965.53 points.

In China, the Shanghai SSE Composite gains 0.75% and the CSI 300 1.34%.

In terms of economic indicators, consumer prices in China rose in August at a slower pace than expected (+2.5% on an annual basis, following +2.7% in July) due to the heat wave and the resurgence of the COVID-19 epidemic, according to official data released on Friday.

RATE

US bond yields are broadly stable on Friday following rising sharply the day before: the two-year appears at 3.5045% and the ten-year trades at 3.3078%.

In Europe, the ten-year German, which took 14 basis points on Thursday, gained another 5.1 points to 1.767%, while the two-year advanced by 9.5 points to 1.416% following a gain of more than twenty points the standby.

The French ten-year OAT rate took 6.3 points to 2.32% following jumping ten points on Thursday.

CHANGES

At the exchange rate, the dollar lost almost 0.6% once morest a basket of benchmark currencies, but remained close to its 24-year high once morest the yen. The Japanese currency is suffering from the policy of the Bank of Japan considered to be accommodating while that of the Fed is considered restrictive.

The euro, which hit an almost 20-year low at the start of the week, advanced 0.69% to $1.0063, well above parity with the greenback, benefiting from ECB announcements .

OIL

The oil market remains volatile, with investors torn between threats from Russia to stop its hydrocarbon deliveries and fears of a drop in demand.

Brent rose 0.34% to 89.45 dollars a barrel and US light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) 0.19% to 83.70 dollars.

The two oil benchmarks should, however, show a decline over the week as a whole.

(Written by Claude Chendjou, edited by Bertrand Boucey)