The Paris stock market gained +1.2% to 7,320 after climbing to 7,350 at around 3:45pm... but what is absolutely impressive is the historic collapse in volumes, with less than 500 million E traded in 6 hours of trading, and barely 860 million processed with 30 minutes to go.
Even during a half-Christmas trading session ending at 1:30 p.m., with half of Europe's stock markets on vacation, the one-billion mark was passed at the close.

British traders are certainly missing, as the London Stock Exchange will remain closed for the Summer Bank Holiday.... but this only partially explains the evaporation of activity in Paris (the absence of US investors had a far greater impact, which didn't prevent a 'small' 2 billion euros from being traded on those days).

What does it mean to see the CAC40 rise by +100 points in volumes 50% below the summer average, and 2/3 below the summer 2022 average?

The Euro-Stoxx50 was only slightly more active, but was just as buoyant (+1.3% to 4,290 after a high of 4,300), as investors seemed reassured by the adoption of new economic support measures in China.

Beijing's announcement that it would halve the tax on stock market transactions in order to invigorate capital markets and boost investor confidence partly allayed fears of a marked slowdown in the global economy.
But Chinese indices, which had reopened +4 to +5% higher, ended the day with gains ranging from +1.1 to +1.4%... the wind soon died down.

Today's session is likely to be very quiet, with a light agenda for both corporate results and economic statistics.
Wall Street lost a few fractions compared with the +6% posted at 3.35pm: Jerome Powell's (short) speech on Friday has now been digested: in hindsight, it appears to be entirely in line with the Fed's previous, somewhat "hawkish" releases.

But doubts about global growth are likely to remain the common thread running through the week's markets, with several statistics expected, including the US employment figures on Friday, which are always closely watched.

Also on the agenda is the eagerly-awaited first estimate of consumer prices in the Eurozone for August, due on Thursday.

On Monday, the yield on 10-year Treasuries fell by -2Pt to 4.22%, after climbing above 4.36% last week, a level not seen for 16 years.

In Europe, the yield on the ten-year German Bund tightened symbolically by +1.5Pt to 2.5715%, remaining some twenty points from its worst levels in recent weeks, while our OATs stagnated at +0.6Pt to 3.0950%.

Despite fears about global growth, crude oil prices edged up on Monday, supported by encouraging news from China.

Brent crude rose to over $84.8 a barrel (+1.4%), while US light crude topped $80.5 (+1%).

In the news for French companies, Casino announced on Friday evening that the Paris Commercial Court would rule in September on the requests for grace periods relating to the bonds it has issued.

TotalEnergies announced this morning that it is continuing its commitment to its motoring customers, guaranteeing that the price of diesel and gasoline will not exceed 1.99 euros per liter at any of its 3,400 service stations in France until the end of the year.

Plastic Omnium announced that it is building the largest hydrogen storage plant in the USA in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, to supply 'a major American automaker', without specifying a name.

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