The Paris stock market is currently losing around 0.2%, at around 7,175 points, amid persistent concerns about the Fed's tightening of monetary policy.

The trend has moved up and down this week, reflecting questions linked to Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's latest statements, which reinforced fears of a faster rate hike by the Federal Reserve.

The firm tone of the US central bank chairman was not enough to calm market euphoria, however.

Despite more hawkish comments from the major central banks, investors continue to position themselves against the Fed by focusing on corporate earnings, which is supporting equities", note Liberum's strategists.

According to the analysts, the medium- to long-term trend remains positive, and the current weakness only represents a temporary loss of momentum, with no real signs of a turnaround.

At the start of this year, market sentiment is (...) more optimistic than it was at the beginning of autumn 2022", stresses Geoffroy Goenen, head of European equities at Candriam.

"Even if the scenario continues to favor an economic slowdown, investors already seem to be glimpsing a brighter horizon", asserts the manager.

A salient fact is that Europe has managed to surprise positively and, at least for the time being, avoid recession.

With monetary tightening now well underway, inflation should theoretically stabilize in the eurozone and continue to fall in the US.

In company news, L'Oréal last night reported sales of 38.26 billion euros for 2022, up 10.9% on a like-for-like basis on the previous year. Net EPS came to 11.26 euros, up 27.6%.

Also last night, Lacroix reported sales of €707.8 million for fiscal 2022, up 8.6% on a like-for-like basis compared with 2021, reflecting "very good sales momentum in France and abroad, as well as rebilling to offset the higher cost of sourcing electronic components".

This morning, Savencia Fromage & Dairy reported sales growth of 16.8% to 6.55 billion euros for 2022, almost entirely due to organic growth driven by non-cheese dairy products.

Finally, Bouygues Telecom announced that it had been ordered by the Paris Commercial Court to pay 308 million euros in damages to Free Mobile, in a dispute over former bundled offers by the Bouygues subsidiary.

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