After spending most of the day close to its equilibrium point, the Paris Bourse lost ground in the final minutes of trading, ending the session down 0.37% at 7,265 points, its lowest level of the day.

The Paris index was notably dragged down by Thalès, which lost 2.2%, behind LVMH (-1.3%) and BNP Paribas (-1%).

The only statistic on the day's menu, the 5.6% drop in new single-family home sales in the United States - following an 8.6% jump in September - did not move the markets.

The Commerce Department also reported that the median house price was $409,300 and the average price $487,000 (an all-time record).

The stock of new homes for sale stands at 439,000, representing a supply of around 7.8 months at the current rate of sales.

Investors will be keeping a close eye on the indicators expected this week, in the hope that they will refine forecasts concerning the possible end of the rate hike cycle that has so far been driving the trend.

Eurozone inflation is expected on Thursday, and the consensus is for a decline to 4% in core data, compared with 4.2% in October.

US statistics will also be closely scrutinized, as they will, among other things, testify to the state of consumer spending, which remains the main driver of growth on the other side of the Atlantic.

Household spending in the USA, also due on Thursday, will provide an insight into the consumer's propensity to spend at the end of the year, as retail sales fell back in October (but rebounded strongly over the weekend).

This release will be accompanied by the 'core' PCE index for October, which remains the 'benchmark' measure of inflation for the US Federal Reserve.

More generally, a new estimate of US growth - due tomorrow - followed by the ISM manufacturing index on Friday, will provide an indication of the economy's continued resilience.

While the stock market indexes posted insignificant gains, gold stood out with a gain of +0.2% to 2005$/oz. This could be a mechanical consequence of the significant easing in rates on Monday, with -5 basis points on US T-Bonds (to 4.433%), -8 basis points on our OATs to 3.120% and -8.5 basis points on Bunds to 2.561%.

In news from French companies, Valneva announces that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has accepted its application for marketing authorization (MA) for its single-dose chikungunya vaccine candidate VLA1553.

Veolia announces that it has signed an agreement for the acquisition by NGE, an independent public works group, of SADE-CGTH, its subsidiary specializing in the construction and rehabilitation of water and infrastructure networks, for an enterprise value of 260 million euros.

Alstom announces a pioneering Eurobalise (a safety-critical device transmitting data from track to train) that incorporates simplified ERTMS encoding functionality to serve multiple use cases.

Air France-KLM and Etihad Airways, the national carrier of the United Arab Emirates, announce a new partnership between their respective frequent flyer programs, following on from the memorandum of understanding signed between the two airlines in September 2023.

Finally, Lhyfe announced on Monday that it had been selected by Nantes and the Port of Saint-Nazaire to develop a green hydrogen production site designed to decarbonize the port ecosystem 'on a large scale'.

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