The Paris Bourse ended the session up 0.99% at 7,425 points, helped by Air Liquide and Saint-Gobain (+2.4%) and Schneider Electric (+2%).

Across the Atlantic, the three indices were also in green, with +0.6% for the Nasdaq, +0.7% for the S&P500 and +0.9% for the Dow Jones.

Note that inflation figures from China reassured the markets, with the lowest CPI in 4 years (+0.6% year-on-year) and a sequentially negative 'core' index.

Investors are now awaiting the latest US inflation data, which should be reassuring (energy prices continued to fall in August with the slowdown in Chinese purchases), followed by the ECB's decision, which is expected to cut its key rate by -25Pts on Thursday.

Christine Lagarde is expected to stress at her press conference that the ECB remains "data-dependent", i.e. it will continue to favor an "as and when" approach at its meetings.

The question now facing investors is whether the ECB will cut rates twice or three times this year.

In terms of figures, US business inventories rebounded slightly in July (+0.2%) after remaining stable in June, according to data released on Monday by the Commerce Department: the economists' consensus was for 0.3%, after remaining perfectly stable the previous month.

The statistics were mainly driven by a 1% rise in automobile inventories, while computer equipment inventories rose by 1.4%.

Business sales rose by 1.1% in July, which means that at the current rate it will take 1.35 months to sell off inventories, compared with 1.38 months in July 2023.

On the bond front, US yields, which had eased sharply last week, eased back a little on Monday, with +1Pt on the T-Bond 2034 at 3.712%.
Consolidation session in Europe, with the Bund unchanged at 2.17%, and the same for our OATs at 2.88%.

Another element likely to influence the trend is tomorrow evening's first televised debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump in the run-up to the November 5 presidential election in the United States.

While the gap in voting intentions has recently widened in favor of the Democratic candidate (according to the Democratic media, which is in the majority in the USA, the few 'conservative' media outlets are producing the opposite figures), it is likely that many voters will rely on this debate to make their choice.

Caution: the 2016 scenario with Clinton's confident campaign could happen again", warn analysts at DeftHedge, a specialist in decision support for currency and commodity risk.

In French company news, Kering (-2.4%) was the biggest loser on the CAC 40 on Monday morning, following two downgrades of analysts' recommendations, accompanied by lowered price targets for the stock.

At a strategic presentation on Monday, BNP Paribas confirmed its revenue growth target of over 2% this year compared with 2023.

Vinci Highways, a subsidiary of Vinci Concessions, has signed an agreement to acquire the Indian company HKR Roadways. This company holds a contract ending in 2041 with the Telangana State Government for the concession of the SH1 freeway.

Carrefour announces its presence in India through a strategic franchise partnership with Apparel Group.

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