The Paris stock market, literally pulled along by the 'KHOLs', continues its irresistible ascent, with the CAC40 soaring by almost 1.2% to set a new absolute record (very provisional) of 7,485 points.
The luxury goods sector now accounts for a third of the CAC40's capitalization, including Essilor (+2.2%) and Pernod-Ricard, the most spectacular sectoral polarization of the 21st century with +4.6% for LVMH (driven by its results announced last night), +3.3% for Hermès and +2.3% for Kering.

The CAC40 is on a near-historic upward solo run, with Frankfurt and Amsterdam gaining less than 0.1%, and outside the Eurozone, London is picking up around +0.2%.
Wall Street is set to reopen without much change, with the Nasdaq forecast at +0.25%, while the S&P500 is expected to remain stable.

US 'figures' aren't even boosting the other Eurozone markets, even though they come as a pleasant surprise: US producer prices rose by just 2.75% year-on-year (and 3.6% excluding food), compared with +4.9% and +4.5% respectively in February: this is the 9th consecutive decline (after peaking at 11.7% in March 2022).
The Labor Department reports that PPI contracted by 0.5% in March compared with the previous month, but rose by 0.1% excluding food, energy and business services.

On the other hand, US jobless claims rose by 11,000 in the week to April 3, to 239,000 from 228,000 the previous week.

The four-week moving average - considered a better indicator of the underlying trend in the job market - came to 240,000, up by 2,250 from one week to the next.

Finally, the number of people receiving regular benefits fell by 13,000 to 1,810,000 in the week to March 27, the last week available for this statistic.

In Europe, seasonally-adjusted industrial production rose by 1.5% in the Eurozone and 1.4% in the EU, according to Eurostat estimates, following increases of 1% and 0.4% respectively in January.
Compared with February 2022, industrial production rose by 2% in the eurozone and 2.1% in the EU, following annual rates of change of +0.9% in the eurozone and +1% in the EU observed in January.

While inflation seems to have passed its peak, its decline is largely dependent on energy prices, on which rate hikes have little imapct: it is likely to remain well above the 2% target for many months to come.

Another point of contention is that the monetary tightening underway is likely to push the US economy into recession in the second half of 2023, and limit the recovery expected in 2024.

PIMCO believes that the risks of an "earlier and more severe" recession have increased.
For the asset manager, the failure of certain banks, the increase in the cost of capital and the flight of deposits from the most fragile US banks all point to a marked tightening of credit conditions.

Against this backdrop, the yield on 10-year US Treasury bonds has eased by -3pts to 3.39%.
On the European bond market, the trend is moderately positive: the yield on the French 10-year has eased by -2pts to 2.86%, and its German equivalent by -2pts to 2.346%.

On the foreign exchange market, the dollar has just sunk below 1.10: -0.5% to 1.1050, its new annual low.
Some currency traders believe that the greenback is still overvalued, given that the interest rate differential between the two sides of the Atlantic is set to narrow.

The oil market is stabilizing after its surge of the last three weeks (+25% since March 17), but is holding on to the gains made on Wednesday following the announcement of an anecdotal rise in US crude inventories.

Brent crude is down 0.2% at $87 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) is down 0.2% at $83.1.

On the crypto front, note the double crossing of symbolic thresholds: $30,000 for Bitcoin, $2,000 for Ethereum (+1% on these 2 digital assets).

In French company news, LVMH reports sales of 21,035 million euros for Q1 2023, up 17% organically on the same period a year earlier, with leather goods up +21%.

Christian Dior reported first-quarter 2023 sales of 21 billion euros, up 17% in both total and organic terms, "an excellent start to the year in a geopolitical and economic context that remains uncertain".

SES announced on Thursday the signature in Germany of several multi-year capacity agreements representing a total of over 75 million euros.

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