After losing up to 0.6% mid-morning, around 7375 points, the Paris stock market regained some color in the second half of the session: it finally ended the day with a 0.4% gain, at 7450 pts, driven by Airbus (+2.5%), Kering and EssilorLuxottica (+1.8%).

The session was marked by a sharp fall in oil prices, with Brent crude trading at around $75.7 a barrel, down 4%. The contraction even reached 4.8% on a barrel of WTI in the USA, at $70.4.

Such a drop relieves inflationary expectations, which were heightened last week by the detour of tankers and sea freight from Asia via southern Africa, as access to the Suez Canal via the Red Sea is proving unsafe.

On the statistics front, seasonally-adjusted retail sales volumes fell by 0.3% in the Eurozone and 0.2% in the EU between October and November 2023, according to Eurostat, following increases of 0.4% and 0.5% respectively in October.

Furthermore, in December 2023, the economic sentiment indicator (ESI) rose in both the EU (+1.8 points to 95.6) and the eurozone (+2.4 points to 96.4), according to the results of the European Commission's monthly survey.

At EU level, the improvement in the index is based on higher confidence among households as well as in retail trade, services and construction, while confidence in industry remained broadly unchanged.

The week ahead will be punctuated by the highly scrutinized publication of US inflation figures, scheduled for Thursday, and by the kick-off of the US corporate earnings season, which begins the following day with the releases of major banking groups JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo.

On the bond front, Treasury yields welcomed the fall in WTI: the US ten-year yield eased -6pts below 4% (to 3.975%), while its German equivalent posted -1pt at 2.1340%, and our OATs eased -1.5pt to 2.6670.

In French corporate news, TF1 and Free, a subsidiary of Iliad, announce the signature of a new global distribution agreement effective from January 2024, which will enable Freebox subscribers (starting with those with the Freebox Pop) to benefit from the new free TF1+ service.

On January 5, Casino announced that the European Commission had authorized its takeover by a consortium made up of EP Equity Investment III sàrl (controlled by Daniel K?etínský), Fimalac and Attestor.

Idi announced that PLC, a group in which it acquired a stake a few months ago, had acquired Creapharm Cosmetics, a CDMO specializing in the shaping of cosmetic products, with recognized expertise in hot-casting and sun protection.

Finally, TotalEnergies announces that the Libra consortium has made the final investment decision to develop an innovative natural gas and CO2 separation and reinjection unit for the Brazilian Mero field, in which it holds a 19.3% stake.

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