The Paris stock market ended the first session of the week at 7589 points, at equilibrium (-0.03%), with STMicro and Kering gaining 2.5% and 1.9% respectively, far ahead of Alstom (-4%) and Air Liquide (-2%), the day's red lanterns.

The day was punctuated by a number of statistics. This morning, investors took note of a slight upturn in the eurozone's HCOB composite PMI index, which rose from 47.6 in December to 47.9 in January, reaching a six-month high and indicating the weakest contraction in private sector activity in the region since last July.

In France, the HCOB PMI composite index of overall activity remained below the 50 mark unchanged for an eighth consecutive month in January. It fell from 44.8 in December to 44.6 in January, signalling a slight acceleration in the decline in activity. The services sub-index fell from 45.7 in December to 45.4 for the month just ended.

Across the Atlantic, T-Bonds tightened by +14.5pts to 4.176%, while the 'composite' PMI rallied to a 6-month high of 52, despite the decline in the manufacturing PMI.
In Europe, the 10-year bund moved towards 2.32% (+9pts).

The monthly survey by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) published on Monday showed an increase for the 43rd month out of 44 (the last episode of contraction dates back to December 2022) in the wake of the US services sector, which accelerated more strongly than expected, by +3Pts to 53.4 in January.

Wall Street also had to digest an interview with Jerome Powell broadcast yesterday on the weekly program '60 Minutes': he reiterated his statements of last Wednesday, according to which a rate cut in March was not the institution's central scenario.

The Fed boss also endorsed the 'dot plot' provided at the end of last December's meeting, in favor of three rate cuts this year", commented Danske Bank.

"By way of comparison, financial markets are currently expecting five rate cuts in 2024", the Danish bank points out.

Powell emphasized the robustness of the economy, the strength of the labor market and added that the diagnosis he made at Jackson Hole in August 2022, namely that rate hikes would penalize economic activity, had not materialized to date", the Scandinavian bank points out.

It also added that the current debt trajectory was 'unsustainable'.

This has not prevented the dollar from continuing its bullish rally against the euro, which is down -0.6% towards $1.0725.

With the meetings with the major central banks now behind us, the earnings season should monopolize investors' attention this week, in the absence of any major economic statistics.

Caterpillar and McDonald's results were released at lunchtime, ahead of those of Eli Lilly, Spotify, Ford, Uber and Disney, scheduled for the coming days.

Several European heavyweights such as BP, TotalEnergies, Equinor, Carlsberg, L'Oréal, AstraZeneca, Siemens, Unilever, Kering, ArcelorMittal and Hermès will also be unveiling their accounts in the coming days.

Brent crude oil fell by -0.4% to $77.4 a barrel, while the ounce of gold dropped by -0.9% to $2021.

In other French company news, Thales reports that the UK Ministry of Defence has signed a £1.8 billion, 15-year contract to improve the availability and resilience of Royal Navy ships.

Casino announces that on February 2, the European Commission issued a decision authorizing the takeover of the retail group by the EP Equity Investment III-Fimalac-Attestor consortium, under foreign subsidy regulations.

Finally, in order to make its services energy self-sufficient in France, Veolia says it is accelerating its deployment of local decarbonized energies with the solarization of its post-operating waste storage sites in the country.

Copyright (c) 2024 CercleFinance.com. All rights reserved.