The Paris stock exchange ended the final session of the week at equilibrium, at 7568 points (-0.03%), while the session was marked by very low volumes, with less than 1.9 billion euros traded since the opening.

Over the past week, the Paris index has shed almost 0.4%, but has maintained a gain of close to 17% since the start of the year.

On the statistics front, PCE inflation, which is used by the Federal Reserve to monitor price trends, came in at an annualized 2.6% in November in the US, down 0.3 points on October.

In 'core' data (excluding food and energy), the index contracted from 3.4% to 3.2% month-on-month, according to the Commerce Department.

Published at the same time, household consumption expenditure rose by 0.2% last month compared with October in the USA, for income growth of 0.4% month-on-month.

Meanwhile, after falling by 5.1% in October, durable goods orders rose by 5.4% in the US in November (+2.2% expected), according to statistics published this Friday by the Commerce Department.

The increase was mainly driven by the transportation sector (aircraft orders), since excluding the transportation sector, the rise in new orders for durable goods would have been limited to 0.5%.

And to finish on a high note on Christmas eve, US consumer confidence improved even more sharply than expected in December, to 69.7 from 69.4 initially, according to the final University of Michigan index published on Friday.

Joanne Hsu, the report's author, continues to attribute this improvement to the improvement in one-year-ahead inflation expectations, now down to 3.1%, the lowest since March 2021, from 4.5% last month.

The only downside of the day concerned sales of new single-family homes, which plunged by 12.2% in November compared with the previous month, to an annualized rate of 590,000 units, according to the Commerce Department, following a 4% fall in October.

The median house price was $434,700, and the average price was $488,900.

The inventory of new homes for sale has swelled to 451,000, representing a reserve of around 9.2 months at the current rate of sales.

Bond markets are marking time a little, but no polarity inversion is in sight: T-Bonds stand at 3.9050% (+1Pt), Bunds and OATs are down 1.5Pt at 1.9700 and 2.4770% respectively.

The euro rallied against the dollar ($1.1014/E) to test new highs since the summer, with investors betting that the US Fed will beat the ECB to its first rate cuts.

The oil market stabilized, with Brent crude up 0.1% at around $79.4 a barrel.

Note that gold, the safe-haven par excellence, is also at its highest at $2057 an ounce (+1%)... and the fall in the dollar could send it above $2100.

In French company news, Pernod Ricard announces that it has signed an agreement to sell the Becherovka brand and associated assets, including the Karlovy Vary production site, to the Maspex group. Subject to the usual conditions precedent, the sale is expected to be finalized by the end of June 2024.

Vinci announces that, via its local subsidiary Seymour Whyte, it has been awarded a contract worth more than 86 million euros to upgrade the Cressbrook dam at Toowoomba, near Brisbane in the Australian state of Queensland.

Neoen announces that it has signed a turnkey EPC contract with a joint venture of Bouygues Construction Australia and Bouygues Energies & Services, officially launching construction of the Culcairn solar power plant in the Australian state of New South Wales.

Finally, Stellantis and 2L Logistics announced on Friday that they had entered into exclusive negotiations with a view to the automotive giant acquiring a majority stake in the transport and logistics services company.

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