After briefly touching 7410 points (+1%) in the mid-afternoon, the Paris Bourse gave up half its gains by the end of the session: at the final gong, it had to be content with +0.5%, at 7370 points.

This marked the Paris market's 5th consecutive session of gains, and continued the momentum of the previous day, which had been marked by the publication of encouraging US inflation figures.

As a reminder, the annualized rise in consumer prices across the Atlantic slowed in June, to 3% on a gross basis and 4.8% excluding energy and food products, rates lower than those anticipated by the market on average.

While the Federal Reserve is likely to raise rates again at the end of this month, these data support our view that this should be the last rate hike", commented Commerzbank after the publication.

The momentum of disinflation also seems to be prevailing in France, where Insee this morning confirmed a slowdown in annual consumer price inflation to +4.5% for the past month, after +5.1% in May.

Still on the subject of statistics, at the end of the morning, operators took note of seasonally-adjusted industrial production for May. According to estimates from Eurostat, the European Union's statistical office, industrial production rose by 0.2% in the eurozone and by 0.1% in the EU, compared with April.

Also on the statistics front, the US Department of Labor reported that US producer prices rose by 0.1% in June compared with the previous month, both unadjusted and excluding food, energy and business services.

Finally, US jobless claims fell by 12,000 in the week to July 3, to 237,000 according to the Labor Department, compared with 249,000 the previous week.

Against this backdrop, the VIX (-1.8%) fell back to 13.3, 2% off its most favorable level of the year, while interest rates eased by -8pts, with our OATs back to 3.0250%, Bunds below 2.47% and US T-Bonds content with -4pts to 3.8230%.

On the FOREX, the dollar smashed a new annual low against the euro, which gained 0.5%. The European currency is now trading at $1.119.

On the stock front, Carmila gained 7.4% to 15.4E after reaching an agreement to acquire 93% of the capital of Galimmo, a potential acquisition that will be carried out simultaneously with Carrefour's acquisition of Cora France (+1%), announced at the same time.

Last night, Kaufman & Broad reported a 69% increase in net income (group share) to 38.5 million euros for its first half, on sales up 47% to 849 million euros.

Casino lost nearly 2.5% following a statement by the food retailer on its first-half performance in France, unveiled as part of the conciliation procedure with its creditors.

Alstom announces that it is investing 160 million dirhams (just under €15m) in Morocco to create a second rail plant to manufacture driver cabs for regional trains and metros.

Finally, Airbus announces that Delta Airlines has ordered 12 additional A220-300 aircraft, bringing the total number of A220s ordered by the airline to 131: 45 A220-100s and 86 A220-300s.

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