CAC 40 Slips On Oil Surge, Interest Rate Concerns

(RTTNews) - French stocks fell on Tuesday, pushing the benchmark CAC 40 to a multi-week low, as rising oil prices amid escalating Middle East tensions, and prospects of a rate hike by the European Central Bank hurt sentiment.

Oil prices climbed higher after Iran threatened to retaliate against any new U.S. attacks on its assets and Saudi-led coalition forces vowed a resolute response to a wave of attacks from Houthi rebels.

Brent crude futures rose to $99.46 a barrel, hitting a six-week high earlier in the day, before easing to around $98.60, still up as much as 1.7% over previous close.

The CAC 40, which dropped to 8,257.60, recovered to 8,297.24, down just 8.91 points or 0.11% a little while ago.

STMicroelectronics shed about 2.1%. Hermes International, Societe Generale and AXA drifted lower by 1.6%, 1.5% and 1.3%, respectively.

Airbus, Unibail Rodamco, Pernod Ricard, BNP Paribas, Safran, LVMH, Credit Agricole, Eurofins Scientific and Saint-Gobain lost 0.5%-1.1%.

Carrefour, Renault, Danone and Bureau Veritas moved up 1.6%-.18%.

EssilorLuxottica, Air Liquide, Euronext, Michelin, Eiffage, TotalEnergies, Legrand, Vinci, Orange, L'Oreal and Schneider Electric gained 0.4%-1%.

In economic news, France's trade deficit widened to Euro 6.7 billion in July 2026 from Euro 5.8 billion in June, exceeding the expected Euro 6.0 billion shortfall. Imports rose 1.8% month-on-month to Euro 61.3 billion, while exports rose 0.3% to Euro 54.7 billion in July.

A separate data showed France's current account deficit widened to a seasonally adjusted Euro 4.7 billion in July from an upwardly revised Euro 1.6 billion in the previous month. It marked the largest shortfall since January 2023.