CAC 40 Up 1.25% On Trade Deal Optimism

(RTTNews) - French stocks are up in positive territory on Wednesday, extending gains to a third straight session, amid optimism about U.S. and the European Union striking a deal sometime soon, despite U.S. President Donald Trump's threat that steep tariffs will be imposed on copper imports, and pharmaceuticals.

Trump announced a 50% levy on copper imports and signaled that more sector-specific tariffs will come soon. He also threatened to impose tariffs of up to 200% on pharmaceutical exports into the U.S., but said that he will "give people about a year, year and a half" until the duties go into effect.

The benchmark CAC 40, which advanced to 7,874.72, was up 96.27 points or 1.24% at 7,862.98 a few minutes ago.

Shares of EssilorLuxottica are up nearly 6% on reports that Meta had acquired a little under 3% stake in the company.

Societe Generale is gaining 3.5% and BNP Paribas is up 2.5%. Airbus, Saint Gobain, Teleperformance, Schneider Electric, Credit Agricole, Vinci, Michelin, Edenred, Veolia Environment, ArcelorMittal, Bouygues, Safran, AXA, Air Liquide and TotalEnergies are up 1 to 2%.

Publicis Groupe is declining 1.7%. Hermes International, Sanofi and STMicroElectronics are down marginally.