The Paris Bourse has completely reversed course with 45 minutes to go, with the CAC40 falling from +0.6% this morning (around 6,614 points) to -1.1% (around 6,504, i.e. -110 points in a straight line, in line-trend fashion), in a market increasingly deserted by investors (1.3 billion euros in 8 hours of trading) two days before the Christmas truce.

The Euro-Stoox50 (-1.3%) and the DAX (-1.4%, with a dip below 13,900pts) fell more sharply, while Wall Street was down sharply (-1.4% on the Dow Jones and -1.9% on the S&P500, -2.5% on the Nasdaq).
The 'Vix' stress index (linked to the S&P500) surged +6.5% to 21.5....

Clearly, macroeconomic "good news" looks like bad news on the US markets: US GDP is revised upwards by +0.3% to 3.2% annualized in Q3 2022, according to the Commerce Department's third estimate.

This surprise revision marks a more sustained recovery after the 0.6% contraction observed in the second quarter: this is due to higher exports and consumer spending, while activity was held back by a fall in housing investment.

The PCE price index rose by 4.3%, unchanged from the previous estimate. Excluding food and energy prices, it rose by 4.7%, a rate revised upwards by 0.1 percentage points.
US jobless claims rose by just 2,000 in the week to December 12 (to 216,000).
The Labor Department reports that the four-week moving average - considered a better indicator of the underlying trend in the labor market - showed a week-on-week decline of 6,250 to 221,750.

Oil prices fell back, with Brent dropping from $83 a barrel to $82.3 (unchanged), while US light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) traded at $78.25 (stable): the trend remains upward, however, and this could foreshadow a rise in fuel costs.

Some observers also want to interpret the strength of black gold as a signal of growing optimism about the economy and a return of risk appetite.

Market sentiment now seems more constructive, and the fear of missing out on the upside is currently outweighing fears of continued policy tightening by the major central banks next year.
Note the acceleration in the 2-year yield, which has risen by +5pts to 4.2650% (following the GDP revision), while the 5-, 7- and 10-year yields remain stable at 3.78% and 3.68% respectively.
In Europe, long yields have deteriorated again, with +6pts on our OATs at 2.883% and on the Bund at 2.357% (same spread on Italian BTPs at 4.490%).

In French company news, Stellantis announced on Thursday that it had completed the acquisition of Hungarian software publisher aiMotive, a deal designed to enable it to accelerate its momentum in autonomous driving.

Voltalia reports the start of construction work on a 148-megawatt solar power plant in Bolobedu, South Africa, just two months after signing the CPPA with Richards Bay Minerals (RBM).

Neoen announces that it has signed a Corporate Power Purchase Agreement with TDF, an operator of digital infrastructure and networks in mainland France and the French overseas territories, for 62 MW over a 15-year period.
New all-time low for Orpéa (-5.5% to 5.77E) after further asset write-downs: the market now values the group's 2 million M² + dependency care business at just 373MnsE, compared with over 5.6MbnE at the start of the year. The company had estimated the value of its real estate assets at 8.4 billion on December 31, 2021 (the market applied a 35% discount).

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