(BFM Bourse) – The Paris Stock Exchange ended up modestly by 0.1% on Thursday evening, after a series of indicators lending credibility to the thesis of a soft landing for the American economy. LVMH published record net profit in 2023.
Wall Street came to the rescue of the Paris Stock Exchange. Down 0.60% at the start of the afternoon, the CAC 40 recovered to finish its run with a small increase of 0.11% to 7,464.20 points this Thursday evening.
And it is more precisely the strength of American growth which has given fuel to the flagship Parisian index. The GDP of the United States grew by 3.3% at an annualized rate, much more than the 2% expected by the consensus.
But it is a very specific point in the statistics which has been a source of hope among investors. Price tensions eased at the end of the year, the price index linked to GDP stood at 2% on an annual basis.
Meanwhile, weekly unemployment claims rose to a one-month high of 214,000 the previous week, compared to an upwardly revised figure of 189,000 claims for the week of January 13.
On Wall Street, this series of economic indicators gives credibility to the scenario of a soft landing for the American economy. And it obscures the disappointment of Tesla, which plunged by more than 10% after the manufacturer warned that its growth would slow down significantly this year. Microsoft, one of the magnificent 7, settles on the 3,000 billion dollars in market capitalization and joins Apple in this very exclusive club of companies with such weight on the stock market.
A bit of a “dovish” tone
In Europe, it was the meeting on rates of the European Central Bank (ECB) and the traditional speech by Christine Lagarde, its president, which were on the agenda of the day. As expected, the European Central Bank maintained its key rates, but the press conference which followed the ECB’s decision raised some hope on the timetable for rate cuts.
“The ECB press conference did not hold any major surprises, but at the margins, we have the impression that the probability of a rate cut before the summer has increased,” estimates Nadia Gharbi, Senior Economist , at Pictet Wealth Management.
A feeling shared by Sebastian Vismara, economist at BNY Mellon Investment Management, who judges “the tone of the press conference was somewhat ‘dovish'”. “In particular, although she said that the discussion on rate cuts was premature, Ms. Lagarde confirmed her comments on a likely rate reduction over the summer, and did not formally deny the possibility that this reduction does not take place before,” he continues.
“This monetary policy meeting was a transition meeting after the December announcements (pivot on rates and decisions on PEPP reinvestments) and in the absence of an update of the growth and inflation scenarios. The meeting of March will allow us to have more data on inflation and developments in the labor market as well as new growth and inflation forecasts from the ECB teams”, estimates Juliette Cohen, strategist at CPR AM.
Publicis focuses on AI
On the values side, the results season was officially launched on the CAC 40 with the publication of the accounts of STMicroelectronics which delivered prospects significantly lower than expectations both for its first quarter and for the entire 2024 financial year. value limited its decline to 0.5%, after losing more than 4% at midday.
Conversely, Publicis (+3.6%) signs a new coup, allowing it to take the lead in the CAC 40 this Thursday evening. The advertising group announced its strategy in artificial intelligence and took the opportunity to reveal its revenues for the fourth quarter, which increased by 5.7% on a comparable basis.
LVMH (+0.3%) revealed its annual results after the markets closed. In 2023, the luxury group LVMH generated more than 15 billion euros in profit, a new record.
Excluding CAC 40, Maisons du Monde lost nearly 6% after having activity in the fourth quarter that was “not good but not catastrophic”, according to TP ICAP Midcap.
On other markets, the euro fell by 0.5% to 1.0835 dollars. Oil is growing. The March contract on North Sea Brent advanced 1.8% to $81.46 per barrel, while that of the same maturity on WTI listed in New York gained 1.8% to $76.47 per barrel. .
Sabrina Sadgui – ©2024 BFM Bourse