The Paris stock market (+0.02% to 7,572) no longer seems in a position to line up another week of gains (the 6th in a row in the event of a 0.35% rise at the close... but this now seems unlikely as the euro-Stoxx50 tumbles into the red).

Mission accomplished, however, and with a special mention for Wall Street, where the US indices - barring a late and unpredictable reversal - are set to post their 8th consecutive week of gains.
The rise is indeed on the cards on the eve of the long Christmas weekend (4 days in Paris and on Euronext markets).
The S&P500 is still close to its record highs with +0.4% at 4,765 (+1.1% weekly and +3.4% in December), the Nasdaq-100 is up by the same amount at 16,830 (+4.4% monthly) and could record its best ever close; the Dow Jones is content with +0.2% at 37.500... but is only 0.1% away from a new all-time record, with 6 hours of trading left.

All suspense about the continuation of the funicular rally evaporated with the good US PCE inflation figures.
PCE inflation - the indicator on which the Federal Reserve relies to monitor the trajectory of prices - stood at 2.6% year-on-year in November, down 0.3 points on October, and in 'core' data (excluding food and energy) contracted from 3.4% to 3.2% month-on-month, according to the Commerce Department.

Published at the same time, consumer spending in the US rose by 0.2% month-on-month in October, on revenues up 0.4% month-on-month.

Following a 5.1% decline in October, orders for durable goods rose by 5.4% in the USA in November (+2.2% expected), according to statistics published this Friday by the Commerce Department.

The increase was mainly driven by the transportation sector (aircraft orders).
In fact, excluding the transportation sector, the rise in new orders for durable goods would have been limited to 0.5%.

And to finish on a high note on Christmas eve, US consumer confidence improved even more sharply than expected in December, to 69.7 from 69.4 initially, according to the final University of Michigan index published on Friday.
Joanne Hsu, the report's author, continues to attribute this improvement to the improvement in one-year-ahead inflation expectations, now down to 3.1%, the lowest since March 2021, from 4.5% last month.
The only downside of the day concerned sales of new single-family homes, which plunged by 12.2% in November compared with the previous month, to an annualized rate of 590,000 units, according to the Commerce Department, following a 4% fall in October.
The median house price was $434,700, and the average price was $488,900.
The inventory of new homes for sale has swelled to 451,000, representing a reserve of around 9.2 months at the current rate of sales.

Bond markets are marking time a little, but no polarity inversion is in sight: T-Bonds stand at 3.9050% (+1Pt), Bunds and OATs are down 1.5Pt at 1.9700 and 2.4770% respectively.

The euro rallied against the dollar (1.1014) to test new highs since the summer, with investors betting that the US Fed will pre-empt the ECB with its first rate cuts.
The Dollar Index (-0.15% to 101.70 from 101.45 at the day's low), meanwhile, is on the verge of confirming the breakdown of a major support level: 101.90 (next target: the '100' level, then 94).

The oil market continues to be underpinned by geopolitical factors, in this case tensions in the Red Sea, which more than offset the prospect of a slowdown in global economic activity.
Brent crude thus appreciated by 1.2% to $80.3 a barrel.

Gold, the ultimate safe-haven, is also at its highest level at $2056 an ounce (+1%)... and the fall in the dollar could send it over the $2100/Oz mark.

In French company news, Pernod Ricard has announced that it has signed an agreement to sell the Becherovka brand and associated assets, including the Karlovy Vary production site, to the Maspex group. Subject to the usual conditions precedent, the sale is expected to be finalized by the end of June 2024.

Vinci reports that, via its local subsidiary Seymour Whyte, it has won a contract worth over 86 million euros to upgrade the Cressbrook dam at Toowoomba, near Brisbane in the Australian state of Queensland.

Finally, Neoen announces that it has signed a turnkey EPC contract with a joint venture of Bouygues Construction Australia and Bouygues Energies & Services, officially launching the construction of the Culcairn solar power plant in the Australian state of New South Wales.

Copyright (c) 2023 CercleFinance.com. All rights reserved.