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The European stock markets began the day slightly higher on Friday, with investors remaining cautious in view of several inflation indicators expected in the United States and the eurozone. This caution was reinforced by the approach of the first round of French parliamentary elections.<\/p>\n
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In early trading, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange gained 0.48%, London 0.70%, while the Paris Bourse remained stable at -0.03%<\/strong><\/b>. At mid-session, the CAC 40 was down 0.38% at 7,502 points, and was still down 0.55% at 7,489.18 points at around 2:15pm<\/strong><\/b>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n L’Or\u00e9al<\/strong><\/b> was the red lantern of the flagship index, dropping nearly 3%<\/strong><\/b>. The decline follows comments by the company’s CEO, who at a JPMorgan<\/strong><\/b> event in Paris, cut his forecast for growth in the global beauty market in 2024 to 4.5%-5%, from an earlier forecast of 5%,<\/strong><\/b> due to stagnation in the Chinese market.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Inflation takes center stage in Europe with the first June estimates for France, Spain and Italy. In France, the harmonized consumer price index rose by 2.5% year-on-year<\/strong><\/b>, in line with expectations, but down slightly from 2.6% in May<\/strong><\/b>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Insee also reported that French household consumption recorded a notable increase of 1.5%<\/strong><\/b> on April, mainly due to strong growth in food (+2.4%) and energy (+3.<\/strong><\/b>9%) spending. However, on an annual basis, food consumption remained down by 0.7%<\/strong><\/b>. Energy spending also made a positive contribution, probably due to temperatures returning to normal after several months of higher conditions.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nFranco-German gap on the rise<\/h2>\n
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