Profits of CAC 40 flagships affected by global turbulence

It's a cold shower for major French companies. At the beginning of the year, they were counting on a rebound in their activity and profits this year, thanks to the dynamism of the global economy that Donald Trump 's return to power was supposed to bring. Alas. The opposite happened. In the first half of the year, France's leading manufacturers and services companies were destabilized by an unprecedented accumulation of turbulence: the trade war unleashed by the American president, the dollar's more than 10% drop against the euro, geopolitical conflicts, sluggish European growth, and the stalled Chinese economy. " The climate of uncertainty is prevalent in many sectors, and this breaks with the widespread optimism at the beginning of the year. It's very striking," says Christopher Dembik, investment strategy advisor at Pictet AM.

This bad cocktail has left its mark. According to our calculations, the cumulative net profits of the 39 giants...