The Paris Bourse ended the session with a gain of 0.98%, at 7,286 points, driven in particular by Carrefour (+3%) and the "technos" with ST-Micro (+2.9%) and Eurofins (+2.5%).

After yesterday's announcement of a jump in new home sales, followed by a sharp rise in the US consumer confidence index, optimism seems to be returning to the markets, with investors once again believing in the possibility of a painless landing for the economy.

Without a U.S. recession, a global recession is unlikely", say the teams at Evli, a Scandinavian asset management company.

A view shared by Carmignac's strategists.

As long as the economy slows down without collapsing, and the pace of disinflation is maintained, keeping long-term interest rates in check, equity markets should remain on a crest line", says Kevin Thozet, one of the Paris-based investment fund's strategists.

But if global growth continues to show strength in the short term, this also means that central banks will have to continue tightening policy in the months ahead.

For the ECB President, inflation remains too high in Europe, and the institution will have to continue its fight against rising prices 'whatever the cost'.

All is not rosy in Europe, despite the strength shown by the indices (E-Stoxx50, DAX and CAC at +1%): German household morale deteriorated as the month of July approached, in a climate of heightened uncertainty regarding the country's economic outlook.

The index compiled by the Nuremberg-based GfK institute, calculated from a sample of 2,000 people over the first part of the month just ended, sank to -25.4 points, compared with a revised figure of -24.4 in June.

This indicator shows that household confidence has been affected by the greater difficulty in saving expressed by households, primarily in the face of persistent inflationary pressures.

Bond markets ease in the Eurozone: OATs and Bunds erase 3Pts of yield each to 2.864% and 2.335% respectively, Italian BTPs ease only -1.5Pt to 3.995%.
US T-Bonds shed 1.5Pt to 3.764%, with no real market mover.

The latest "figure of the day": crude oil inventories reached 453.7 million barrels in the week to June 19 in the USA, signalling a 9.6 million-barrel drop in stocks compared with the previous week, according to the EIA (US Energy Information Agency).

This boosted the price of 'Brent' oil, which recovered +1.5% in a few minutes from $71.8 to $73 in London.

In French company news, Orpea reported that it had applied to Euronext Paris and the Luxembourg Stock Exchange to suspend the listing of all its financial instruments, pending the outcome of votes by the classes of affected parties on its accelerated safeguard plan.

TotalEnergies announced on Wednesday that it plans to invest 70 million euros in 2024 in its biorefinery at La Mède (Bouches-du-Rhône), with the aim of being able to process up to 100% waste from the circular economy to produce biofuels.

SES Space & Defense announces that its subsidiary DRS Global Enterprise Solutions (GES) has been awarded a five-year X-band blanket purchase contract, worth an estimated $134 million, from the US Department of Defense.

Finally, Thales announced on Wednesday that it has entered into a new partnership with Google Cloud to develop data protection functionalities based on generative artificial intelligence.

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