The Paris Stock Exchange is up 0.97% in early trading on Monday, somewhat following the path of Wall Street’s strong progression which led it to records on Friday, before a busy week.
The star CAC 40 index rose 71.75 points to 7,443.39 points around 9:15 a.m. On Friday, it ended down 0.40% (-1.25% over the week), investors taking note of speeches from central bankers telling them to review their expectations on key rate cuts during the year.
But Wall Street had other reasons to rejoice on Friday, notably the still-evidenced optimism of the American consumer. The publication of this data caused the indices to soar, allowing the S&P 500 to beat its absolute record set two years earlier, and the Dow Jones to beat its previous peak in December.
If investors doubt, for the moment, the main macro narratives that have supported the rally from the end of 2023, namely the expected drop in key rates from central bankers thanks to the decline in inflation, they however continue to favor tech, note Natixis analysts.
They nevertheless warn that other segments of the stock market are more sluggish at the start of the year: the Parisian index, for example, is still in sharp decline in the first sessions of 2024, like all European markets.
Monday will be a fairly calm session as usual, but the week will be busy for investors.
On the macroeconomic side, the Central Bank of Japan ends its two-day meeting on Tuesday and the European Central Bank meets on Thursday. Leading indicators of PMI activity are expected in Europe on Wednesday, American growth for the fourth quarter on Thursday and inflation in the United States on Friday.
Corporate news is also filled with results from companies, including Paris LVMH and STMicroelectronics on Thursday.
On the bond market, the rate of the 10-year French loan, the benchmark maturity, fell to 2.80%, compared to 2.83% on Friday.
Crdit Agricole at Worldline’s bedside
Crdit Agricole announced on Monday its entry as a long-term minority shareholder in the capital of the payments specialist Worldline, which has been struggling on the stock market for several months, with 7% of the shares.
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Crdit Agricole, which signed a strategic partnership in July in the field of payment services for merchants with the former Atos subsidiary, said in a press release that it wanted to support the development of Worldline and (…) enable it to implement its strategy as a leading European player in the payments market.
Worldline jumped by 5.4% to 13.82 euros, and Crdit Agricole by 1.04% to 13.37 euros.
The increase was lower than the other CAC 40 banks: BNP Paribas rose 2.26% to 61.98 euros while Socit Generale rose 2.12% to 23.63 euros. The latter plans to eliminate more than 500 positions in France, as part of a cost reduction plan launched by new general director Slawomir Krupa, according to the Bloomberg agency.
The FDJ bets on Unibet
Form a European champion in gambling: La Franaise des Jeux announced on Monday that it wanted to strengthen its position in online betting and games with the launch of an offer for the Swedish operator Kindred, which notably owns Unibet, for 2.6 billion euros.
Kindred, listed in Stockholm, soared 16.79% without reaching the price of the public purchase offer. The FDJ took 5.18% 36.14 euros.