The Paris Bourse ended the session with a gain of 1.34%, at 7,671 points, well helped by Capgemini (+3%), Kering and Engie (+2.4%).

Investors were also encouraged by new record highs on Wall Street (S&P500 +0.3% to 5,500pts), which was closed yesterday for the day of commemoration of the abolition of slavery ('Juneteenth').

The new records set on Tuesday evening were merely the prelude to the continued rise of US indices, and of the Nasdaq in particular (+0.4%, new high at 17.936), well on its way to its 8th closing record.

Ditto for the Nasdaq-100 (+0.4% to 19,980, clearly aiming for a symbolic zenith of 20,000 on this eve of the "4 Witches") in the wake of Nvidia, which soared by a further +3.2%, above $140, and consolidated its position as the world's leading capitalization with $3,425 billion, far ahead of Apple.425 billion, far ahead of Apple (down -0.5% at $3,290 billion) and Microsoft (down -0.9% at $3,300 billion).

Nvidia is once again "doing it all", in line with the algorithmic logic that is imposing itself on the markets on the eve of a quarterly deadline.

The Dow Jones is also up +0.4% at 38.950, leaving it 3% from its zenith of 40,077pts.

In Europe, the market mover could have been the BoE, if it had changed its tune: it didn't, and its decision to maintain rates was 100% expected, so no reaction.

However, the recent slowdown in inflation, which last month reached the 2% target set by the central bank, is beginning to fuel speculation about a forthcoming rate cut.

The signals sent by the British economy are contradictory", point out analysts at Oddo BHF, who on the one hand point to "robust" growth and rising wages and service prices, but also to a rising unemployment rate and a job market "close to an inflection point".
The SNB (Swiss National Bank) cut its key rate by 0.25% to 1.25%, as expected.)

Several US statistics enlivened the session in the United States, with the publication of the latest housing figures: housing starts were down by -5.5%, at 1.277 million, whereas the consensus was for 1.37 million, after 1.35 million in April.

Building permits also fell, to an annualized 1.38 million in May in the US, after 1.44 million in April (the consensus was for stability).
The Philly Fed index fell by 3 points to +1.3 this month.
The new orders sub-index remains negative, but improved from -7.9 in May to -2.2 in June.

The employment sub-index improved from -7.5 to -2.5, while the prices paid sub-index increased by +4 points to 22.5.

According to the survey, more than 32% of companies surveyed say they expect business to increase over the next six months, 19% to decline and 47% to remain stable.

Unemployment benefit registrations fell by -5,000 to 238,000, but this was slightly less than expected - the consensus was for -8,000 to 235,000.

On the bond market, the spread between the yield on the ten-year German Bund (2.44%) and that on its French equivalent with the same maturity (3.16%) contracted on Thursday by -3Pts to +73Pts, which remains a 'high' since the Greek crisis at the beginning of 2012.

The euro (-0.2%) weakened again to return to around $1.0720, while oil gained +0.2%, with 'Brent' rising to $85.4 in London.

Data published by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed that US crude oil inventories stood at 457.1 million barrels for the week ending June 10, down 2.5 million barrels on the previous week.

In the news from French companies, Bic (-12.2%) suffered from the revision of its sales growth outlook for 2024, due to a difficult macroeconomic environment including 'a moderate to high single-digit decline in the US lighter market (in value)'.

Dassault Systèmes announces that Mahindra & Mahindra, an Indian manufacturer of automobiles and agricultural machinery, has opted for its cloud-based 3DEXPERIENCE platform to accelerate the entire development process for its new products.

Technip Energies announces that it has won a 'significant' contract (between 50 and 250 million euros in sales, depending on its terminology) from Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), which will be booked in Q2 2024 order intake.

Vivendi subsidiary Canal+ announced on Thursday that it had increased its stake in Asian streaming service Viu to 36.8%, in line with the agreement reached with Hong Kong's PCCW last year.

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