CAC 40 Cuts Early Losses

(RTTNews) - French shares remain on the back foot on Friday, although markets pared early losses after the release of encouraging Eurozone economic confidence data.

Underlying sentiment remains cautious somewhat, as a global bond selloff deepened on expectations of tighter central bank policies and the earnings season proved a mixed bag. U.S. rate hike worries also kept investors nervous ahead of crucial U.S. jobs data due tonight.

The benchmark CAC 40 is currently down 2 points or 0.03 percent at 4,532 in late opening deals after closing marginally lower the previous day.

Total SA shares are down 1.5 percent. The oil & gas company reported adjusted net income for the third quarter of $2.07 billion, down from $2.76 billion in the corresponding period last year.

BNP Paribas is losing 1 percent despite reporting better-than-expected profit for the third quarter.

Saint-Gobain shares are rallying 3 percent after the building materials firm posted good organic growth in the first five nine months of the year.

In economic releases, survey data from the European Commission showed that a gauge of Eurozone economic confidence hit a 10-month high in October. The headline index rose more than expected to 106.3 from 104.9 in September.

Separately, French consumer spending unexpectedly dropped 0.2 percent in September after a 0.8 percent increase in August, which was revised from 0.7 percent, preliminary data from statistical office INSEE revealed.

The annual consumer price inflation remained stable at 0.4 percent in October, while producer prices edged up 0.1 percent month-over-month in September, after remaining flat in the previous month.