The Paris stock market gained nearly 0.3% this morning, making up for the previous day's decline, and regaining contact with the 7520-point mark after the release of an encouraging Chinese indicator allayed fears of a global recession.

China's gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 4.5% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2023, according to data published on Tuesday by the State Bureau of Statistics (BES).

On a monthly basis, the Chinese economy grew by 2.2% in the first three months of the year, whereas analysts were expecting growth of only 2%.

These figures suggest that the Chinese economy is doing better after having long suffered from the country's containment measures, mainly driven by a rebound in household consumption, Danske Bank staff commented this morning.

The announcement of better-than-expected growth in China is above all likely to calm investors' concerns about slowing growth.

Another supportive factor is that the European stock markets are poised to rebound in the wake of Monday's rally on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones finished with gains of around 0.3%, as did the Nasdaq.

The trend in New York was underpinned by defensive stocks, starting with real estate, which was up by more than 2.2% at the final bell, against a backdrop of rising bond yields.

In a small measure of relief, the 10-year Treasuries rate stabilized at around 3.59% this morning

Despite the continuing deterioration in bond yields over the past four weeks, stock markets remain buoyed by growing optimism about a "soft landing" scenario, which would see inflation ease off without leading to a recession.

This scenario was bolstered yesterday by the spectacular rebound in the Empire State index measuring manufacturing activity in the New York region, which came in at +10.8 in April, compared with -24.6 in March.

As for the day's economic agenda, in the morning investors will follow the ZEW index of investor sentiment in Germany, expected to improve in April.

Also on the macroeconomic front, in the early afternoon, market participants will take note of the figures for building permits and housing starts in the United States, which rebounded strongly in February.

Investors will also be keeping a close eye on corporate earnings, with reports from Ericsson and then Johnson & Johnson, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, which will precede Netflix's accounts due out this evening.

Companies' quarterly earnings will be closely watched to determine whether their prospects are suffering too much from the growing uncertainties surrounding the strength of the economy.

In the news for French companies, Virbac posted sales of €314.8 million for the first quarter of 2023, down slightly by 1% at real exchange rates and by 1.3% at constant exchange rates, mainly due to an unfavorable base effect in a context of market slowdown.

Alstom has won a contract to design, supply and maintain ETCS level 2 signalling systems for 37 SNCB HLD77 locomotives over a 10-year period.

ArcelorMittal announced on Tuesday that it would be joining forces with Brazilian renewable energy producer Casa dos Ventos to create a joint venture from which it will purchase wind-generated electricity.

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