CAC 40 Pares Early Gains In Cautious Trade

(RTTNews) - France's equity benchmark CAC 40 slipped into negative territory around late morning on Friday, failing to hold early gains, as oil pared early losses and moved higher, forcing investors to refrain from picking up stocks at higher levels.

Oil prices moderated earlier in the day in response to the efforts by the U.S. and Israel to ease concerns about ongoing fuel supply issues.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said U.S. President Donald Trump had requested that there be no further attacks on the Iranian gas field. Trump suggested that he has no plans to deploy American troops to the Middle East. To increase oil supply and bring down energy prices, U.S. officials said Washington may soon lift sanctions on Iranian oil stranded in tankers.

However, oil prices climbed higher subsequently on reports the U.S. President is mulling a forced takeover of Iran's Kharg Island.

The CAC 40, which rose to 7,883.27 earlier, dropped to 7,771.82 before edging up to 7,813.30, up 5.43 points or 0.07%.

Capgemini and Hermes International are down nearly 2%. Dassault Systemes is lower by about 1.8%, while Safran, Euronext, Publicis Groupe and Thales are down 1%-1.4%.

Michelin, TotalEnergies, EssilorLuxottica and LVMH are down with modest losses.

Accor is up nearly 2.5%. Saint-Gobain is gaining 1.8%, while Renault, Eiffage, Bouygues, L'Oreal, Unibail Rodamco and STMicroelectronics are up 1%-1.6%.

Stellantis is up 0.5% after the company said that its battery-electric vehicles in North America now have access to the Tesla Supercharger network via adapters.

Schneider Electric, Carrefour, Credit Agricole, Air Liquide, Vinci, Kering and Orange are up with modest gains.

In economic news, The euro area current account surplus increased in January to the highest level since June 2024, data from the European Central Bank showed Friday.

The current account surplus rose to EUR 38 billion from EUR 13 billion in December. This was the highest since June 2024, when the surplus totalled EUR 46.7 billion.

The surplus on trade in goods increased to EUR 33 billion from EUR 19 billion and that on services rose to EUR 16 billion from EUR 14 billion.

Primary income showed a surplus of EUR 4 billion compared to a shortfall of EUR 4 billion in the previous month. The shortfall in the secondary income remained unchanged at EUR 15 billion.

During twelve months to January, the current account surplus declined to EUR 261 billion, or 1.6% of euro area GDP, from EUR 377 billion or 2.5% a year earlier.