The Paris Bourse gains nearly 0.9% (to 7,350), and the CAC40 looks set to post its best weekly close of the year, above the 7,347 of February 17.
The Frankfurt stock exchange takes the lead in Europe with +1.6%, following reassuring business figures published this morning.
This boosts the Euro-Stoxx50, which gains +1.2% and retraces its annual high at 4,295 (once again, the best weekly close seems assured).

The European stock markets are now on the verge of a 22nd week of gains.

Optimism returned to Wall Street late last night after Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said that "a gradual mindset is the appropriate course of action for the central bank", before adding that "the central bank should stick to a quarter-point rate hike for the March 22 meeting", reports Wells Fargo.

R. Bostic's stance at least shows that the debate remains open within the Fed.
Wall Street reopened on a positive note, with gains ranging from +0.5% for the Dow Jones, +0.8% for the S&p500 and +1% for the Nasdaq.

Bond yields are easing a little on Friday, following new record highs for French OATs and German Bunds the previous day.
Our OATs are down -2pts at 3.22%, Bunds -2pts at 2.735%, Italian BTPs -6pts at 4.57%.

Yet the day's figures demonstrate the robustness of our economy: the S&P Global composite PMI for overall activity in France returned to the expansion zone, rising from 49.1 in January to 51.7 in February, after three consecutive months of contraction.

However, this rebound in activity rested entirely on the strong performance of the services sector, with manufacturing production recording its biggest decline since October 2022. This performance at least temporarily removes the risk of recession on the Old Continent.

Still on the French statistical front, in January, production fell over one month in both manufacturing (-1.8% after +0.2%) and industry as a whole (-1.9% after +1.5%), according to seasonally and working-day adjusted data (CVS-CJO).

Insee, which published these figures, highlights a sharp downturn in transport equipment (-6.7% after +8%), particularly in other transport equipment (-9.5%, after +13.5%) and more moderately in automobiles (-2.6%, after +0.9%).

In the eurozone, the S&P Global composite PMI index for overall activity rose from 50.3 in January to 52.0 in February, signalling continued growth in eurozone activity, with the pace of expansion the strongest since June 2022.

In the US, the private sector managed to stabilize in February (after seven months of contraction), according to S&P Global, whose composite PMI index stood at 50.1 in February, compared with a flash estimate of 50.2 and 46.8 for the previous month.
In particular, S&P Global points out that private sector job creation reached its highest level since September 2022
Today's good figures did not enable oil to confirm its positive trend of the last 48 hours: Brent crude fell back by -1% to $83.6 in London.
Finally, the ISM "services" index published at 4pm came in at 55.1 versus 54.3 expected: another "more robust than expected" figure.
However, there were some signs of weakness in the ISM's sub-indices.
The services activity and production component fell to 56.3 in February from 60.4 the previous month, while the shipments component deteriorated to 47.6 from 50.
On the good news front, the employment component rose to 54 from 50 in January, as did the new contracts component, which came in at 62.6 versus 60.4 the previous month... but is the strength in employment being well received by the bond sector?
T-Bonds, which had eased -9pts this lunchtime, are now down -6pts at 4.016%.


In French company news, the CGG geosciences group (+7%) reports net income of $43 million for 2022, compared with a net loss of $180 million in 2021, as well as adjusted operating income up 88% to $147 million, representing a margin of 16%.

For the first half of FY 2022-23, Bonduelle reports a 35.3% increase in net income from continuing operations to 14.4 million euros, and a 94 basis point improvement in recurring operating margin to 3.5%.

Finally, Ipsen announces the completion of the acquisition of Albireo Pharma, a leading innovator in the field of bile acid modulators for the treatment of rare liver diseases, an acquisition announced in January.

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