The Paris Bourse ended the session with a gain of 0.48%, at 7,677 points, driven by Stellantis (+3.8%), Saint-Gobain (+2.4%) and Publicis (+1.3%) despite very limited volumes, with barely 2.5 billion euros traded since the opening.

This evening, the CAC40 set a new closing record, just moments after setting an all-time session high of 7,686 points.

After a period of virtual stagnation between January 4 and 24, the Paris market has just gained nearly 4.5% in less than ten days.

"The prevailing sentiment on the stock market is one of optimism", sums up Christopher Dembik, Investment Strategy Consultant at Pictet AM.

Even if there are uncertainties about monetary policy, which are likely to be confirmed by the Federal Reserve this week, investors consider that the economy is sufficiently solid and that corporate results are on target", adds the analyst, who considers equities "resilient and unavoidable".

While there is little doubt that the Fed will maintain the status quo tomorrow, market participants will be looking to Jerome Powell's speech for clues as to the timing of future rate cuts.

On the statistics front, the 1st preliminary flash estimate published by Eurostat this morning shows that GDP in the eurozone and the EU remained stable in Q4 compared with the previous quarter.

In France, GDP remained stable in Q4 (-0.02%), according to data published this morning by Insee, after having already remained unchanged in Q3. On average over 2023, French GDP rose by 0.9% (after +2.5% in 2022 and +6.4% in 2021).

Investors are also awaiting the results of tech giants Microsoft, Alphabet and AMD, due this evening and on which they are placing high expectations (valuations are in the stratosphere: no disappointment will be tolerated).

There's no room for error, as the results season so far has been fairly average", says Alexandre Baradez, head of market analysis at IG France.

He points out that US equities are currently trading in an expensive environment, with the S&P 500 paying 20 times expected earnings (50 times for GAFAM + Nvidia), despite persistently high interest rates.

Yields in Europe are down +5 basis points on average, with our OATs down +5 points to 2.78% and Bunds down +4.5 points to 2.28%.
In the US, T-Bonds are stabilizing at 4.09% (+0.5Pts): they cannot offer real support to equity markets as they did on Monday.

Brent crude is stable at around $82.5 a barrel. The euro is also stable against the greenback, at around $1.08/E.

In French company news, Seb announces the construction of its first professional equipment hub in Shaoxing, in China's Zhejiang province, which should be operational by 2025 and will include an R&D center, purchasing and a production site.

Engie announces the signing of a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Amazon for 123 MW from Ocean Winds' Moray West offshore wind farm, off the coast of Scotland, bringing the total to 473 MW when the site becomes operational later this year.

On Tuesday, Air Liquide announced the launch with TotalEnergies of a European joint venture dedicated to hydrogen distribution for heavy-duty vehicles.

TotalEnergies also announced the signature of an agreement with the Wenea group to build a major player in electric mobility in Spain, by developing a network of fast-charging hubs.


Copyright (c) 2024 CercleFinance.com. All rights reserved.