On the financial markets, a euphoric summer at the risk of excessive optimism

The meeting of the finance ministers at the Jackson Hole Symposium in Wyoming on August 22, 2025. At center: Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB; at right: Jerome Powell, her counterpart at the Fed. AMBER BAESLER / AP

Compromises on customs duties, healthy corporate results, an interest rate cut within reach, and hopes of a ceasefire in Ukraine: the summer cocktail has benefited the financial markets. On Wall Street, the Nasdaq, the Standard & Poor's 500 (S&P 500), and the Dow Jones all posted record highs in the middle of August. In Europe, the broad Stoxx 600 index is at its highest level since March, as is the Parisian CAC 40, which crossed the 8,000-point mark on Wednesday, August 20.

The growth of the forty leading French stocks has approached 8% since January ^1st , a more than respectable performance, even if it remains far behind that of the other major European markets: London gained 14%, Frankfurt 22% and Milan 26%. The CAC 40 remains hampered by the difficulties of the luxury sector, which weighs heavily in its composition and continues to suffer from the weakness of Chinese consumption.

Trade deals concluded by Washington with the European Union and Japan , as well as the extension of the trade truce with China , have contributed significantly to overall stock performance, after the air pocket that followed, in early April, the "Liberation Day" of American President Donald Trump , which triggered the global trade conflict.

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