(CercleFinance.com) – The Paris stock market gained almost 0.7%, and the CAC40 even climbed to 7,347 Pts, its best weekly closing on February 17.
The Frankfurt stock exchange is well ahead of European markets with +1.4%, following reassuring activity figures published this morning.
Only about ten points are missing, and a slightly more sustained increase in the US indices could lead to a 22nd week of increases in European markets.
Optimism returned late last night on Wall Street after Atlanta Fed Chairman Raphael Bostic said ‘a progressive mindset is the right course of action for the central bank’ before adding ‘stick to a quarter-point rate hike for the March 22 meeting’, reports Wells Fargo.
R.Bostic’s position at least has the merit of showing that the debate remains open within the Fed.
Bond yields eased a little on Friday after new records for French OATs and German Bunds posted the day before.
Our OATs wiped out -6pts at 3.185%, Bunds -5.5pts at 2.698%, Italian BTPs -10pts at 4.532%.
However, today’s figures demonstrate the robustness of our economy: the S&P Global composite PMI for overall activity in France is back in the expansion zone, going from 49.1 in January to 51.7 in February, after three months consecutive contractions.
This rebound in activity, however, was entirely based on the good performance of the services sector, with manufacturing production on the contrary recording its largest decline since October 2022. This performance is at least temporarily reducing the risk of recession on the Old Continent. .
Still on the front of French statistics, in January, production fell over one month in manufacturing industry (‑1.8% after +0.2%) as in industry as a whole (‑1.9 % after +1.5%), according to data adjusted for seasonal variations and the number of working days (CVS-CJO).
INSEE, which publishes these figures, highlights a sharp decline in transport equipment (‑6.7% after +8%), in particular in other transport equipment (‑9.5%, after +13 .5%) and more moderately in automotive (‑2.6%, after +0.9%).
In the Eurozone, the S&P Global composite PMI of overall activity rose from 50.3 in January to 52.0 in February, signaling continued growth in Eurozone activity, the pace of the expansion having also been the strongest since June 2022.
On the United States side, the American private sector managed to stabilize in February (after seven months of contraction), according to S&P Global, whose composite PMI index finally settled at 50.1, against 50.2 in flash estimate, and 46.8 for the previous month.
S&P Global highlights in particular that job creations in the private sector have reached their highest pace since September 2022
The good figures of the day do not allow oil to confirm its good dispositions of the last 48 hours: the ‘Brent’ relapses by -1% towards $83.6 in London.
It remains to discover the ISM at 4 p.m….
In the news of French companies, the geosciences group CGG (+7%) reveals a net result of 43 million dollars for the year 2022, against a net loss of 180 million in 2021, as well as an adjusted operating result activities up 88% to 147 million, representing a margin of 16%.
Bonduelle publishes for its first half of the 2022-23 financial year a net income from continuing operations up 35.3% to 14.4 million euros and a current operating margin improved by 94 basis points to 3 .5%.
Finally, Ipsen announces the completion of the acquisition of Albireo Pharma, a leading innovator in the field of bile acid modulators for the treatment of rare liver diseases, an acquisition announced in January.
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