This last session before the "4 Witches" was looking promising, but the euphoria subsided at 1:30 p.m. with the US PPI.
The CAC40 is marking time: after a funicular (and 100% algorithmic) ascent from 9 a.m. to 12:22 p.m. (culminating at 8.218Pts, up 1%), the index slowed a little, gaining 0.5% to 8,175 points.
The Euro-Stoxx50, which had climbed to a new zenith of 5,030Pts (around 2pm, in the wake of the 3 French luxury champions), saw its lead melt from +0.6% to +0.1% (remember the intraday record at 5,030).030).
And +0.1% was the average performance of the US indices at the opening, a disappointment given that gains of +0.5 to +0.6% were anticipated before the figures published at 1:30 p.m.
The S&P500 should have set a new record, as should the Dow Jones, above 39,200, but it has plateaued below 39.160 and the Nasdaq is struggling to stay in the green.
This is due to US producer prices, which rose by 0.6% in gross terms in February (twice as much as expected) compared with the previous month, and by 0.4% excluding food, energy and commercial services.

According to the Labor Department, the increase stood at 1.6% gross annualized and 2.8% excluding food, energy and commercial services last month, compared with annual rates of 1% and 2.7% respectively in January.

No surprise, however, for US retail sales rebounded by 0.6% sequentially in February, broadly in line with market expectations, following a 1.1% decline the previous month (revised from an initial estimate of -0.8%).

The Commerce Department, which publishes these figures, states that excluding the automotive sector (vehicles and equipment), US retail sales rose by 0.3% last month, following a 0.8% decline in January.

These figures have cooled the atmosphere a little, but this may only be temporary (as we saw with the 'NFP' and then the 'CPI', which were worse than expected but quickly digested).
Whatever the news, traders remain confident in the future", notes Christopher Dembik, at Pictet AM, warning however that "at some stage, a breather will be needed, at least to allow for profit-taking".

"A future bad company publication or a bad statistic could be the trigger. This will allow those who missed out on the bullish rally at the start of the year to get in," says the professional.

"Finally, let's not forget that once the key interest-rate cut begins - a priori next June - a large proportion of the capital invested in money-market instruments will go into the equity market in search of a higher yield," he continues.
In the meantime, the bond market has reacted negatively to the PPI and retail sales figures: US T-Bonds have risen by +8pts to 4.275%, our OATs by +5.5pts to 2.845%, and Bunds by +6pts to 2.415%.
The dollar recovered a little, up +0.3% to 1.0915 against the euro.
Oil (+1% to $84.8 in London) confirms that it has broken through the $83.7 resistance barrier, even though consumption forecasts have been revised downwards for 2024, as a result of lower growth forecasts.

In other stock news, in vitro diagnostics specialist bioMérieux reports a 21% decline in net income (group share) for 2023, but a 2% organic increase in EBITDA.

The Iliad group's sales growth reached 10.4% to €9.24 billion in 2023, and 11.3% in Q4. Group EBITDAaL 2023, at 3.44 billion euros, was up 4.2% (2.1% pro forma organic). The Group's ambition is to achieve sales of 10 billion euros by 2024, and to become Europe's 5th largest mobile operator," says management.

Air Liquide announces the sale to Adenia Partners Ltd of its activities in twelve African countries, representing annual sales of around 60 million euros (less than 10% of the Group's sales on the continent).

Investors will also be able to react to the annual results unveiled on Wednesday evening by steel distributor Jacquet Metals, contract logistics group ID Logistics and engineering firm Assystem.

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