The Paris Bourse is pushing ahead with gains of +0.6% this morning, around 7,370 points... but volumes remain as scanty as the previous day (900Bn traded in 7 hours), despite the return of British traders.

Buyers are encouraged by the slight fall in bond yields in Europe, with our OATs erasing -2.8Pts, Italian BTPs -4Pts, and Bunds erasing -4.5Pt at 2.5210%.

US T-Bonds are down -5.5pts to 4.16%, while house prices in the US (in the top 20 metropolitan areas) rose by 0.9% in June compared with the previous month, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller indices.
On a year-on-year basis, however, prices contracted by 1.2% in June, although this was less than the 1.7% fall in May, with increases in Chicago (+4.2%), Cleveland (+4.1%) and New York (+3.4%) in particular.

Traders remain torn between the prospect of a rate hike in early November (consensus 60%) in the US, and signs of a slowdown in the global economy that could lead central banks to ease the cost of money.

One indicator remains on the day's menu: the Conference Board's consumer confidence index, which will measure the impact of the recent rise in gasoline prices on US household morale.

In the meantime, the Dollar is eroding a little against the Euro, -0.3% to 1.0850, and the Dollar Index is slightly negative (-0.1% to 103.95).

In French company news, Lacroix last night reported Q2 sales of €193m, up 11.4% on the same period in 2022.

This morning, Voltalia announced the full commissioning of its new Garrido complex in Portugal, comprising five solar power plants with a total capacity of 50.6 megawatts, for which construction was launched in September 2022.

Technip Energies reports that it has won a 'significant' contract (between 50 and 250 million euros in sales, depending on its terminology) from bp for a hydrogen production unit at its Kwinana biorefinery in Western Australia.

Finally, Freelance.com reports sales for the first half of 2023 of 419.4 million euros, up 10% year-on-year, with organic growth of 18% in France more than offsetting a 4% decline internationally.

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