Stable at mid-session, the Paris Stock Exchange went into the red, investors focusing on January consumer price statistics in the United States, while sanctioning companies that did not “explode” the consensus in terms of results.
With an increase of 7.5% over one year in January, US inflation is now at its highest since February 1982. The consensus formed by Bloomberg was counting on an acceleration to 7.3%, after 7% in December. According to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool, the market now assesses the probability of a half-point hike in the Fed funds rate in March at 44.3%, compared to 25% this morning. The yield on the US 10-year bond rose 5 basis points to 1.98%.
Closer to home, the European Commission raised its inflation forecasts this morning. It anticipates an acceleration to 3.5% in 2022, after 2.6% in 2021, before a slowdown to 1.7% next year. It also expects growth of 4% in the region’s GDP this year, after 5.3% in 2021, and 2.7% in 2023.
Around 3 p.m., the Bedroom 40 lost 0.67% to 7,082.98 points in a business volume expanded by 2 billion euros. The contracts future on American indices yield between 0.4%% for the Dow Jones and 1.5% for the Nasdaq 100. Component of the index of 30 industrials, disney progressed by nearly 7% in pre-market trading, boosted by better-than-expected results in the first quarter and the recruitment of 11.8 million subscribers to its Disney+ streaming service, enough to make Netflix green, which is just waiting for it 2.5 million for the current one.
Unibail optimistic, Atos alert again
Biggest increase in the Cac 40, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield advance of 7.8%. The commercial property company has announced that it is targeting adjusted net recurring earnings per share for 2022 of between 8.2 and 8.4 euros, compared to 6.91 for the 2021 financial year, thanks to the recovery in the second half of the last year.
Dassault Aviation wins 4%. The contract signed with Indonesia for the acquisition of Rafale combat aircraft is for a total amount of 8.1 billion dollars, announced the French Ministry of the Armed Forces, which adds that Thales (+2.4%) and Saffron (+1.4%) will be involved in the contract.
Societe Generale increased by 2.9%. The bank reported a near quadrupling of its profit in the fourth quarter, thanks to lower pandemic-related charges and a rebound in retail banking and equity trading activities. The group also indicated that its profitability should continue to improve in the years to come.
Biggest drop in SRD, Atos drops 4.8% after again lowering its forecasts and announcing asset write-downs of up to 2.4 billion euros.
ArcelorMittal yields 1.9%. The steelmaker published quarterly results above analysts’ forecasts. Over the October-December period, the gross operating surplus, (Ebitda) the measure most watched by analysts, quintupled to 5.05 billion dollars. This figure is barely above Jefferies’ expectations, which points out that the 38% increase in net debt is higher than expected.
L’Oreal loses 1.6%. The cosmetics giant announced better-than-expected sales growth in the fourth quarter, supported in particular by the enthusiasm of its Chinese and American customers for beauty products during the end-of-year holidays. While sales were “impressive,” operating margin and earnings per share were slightly below RBC’s expectations, noting that after several industry warnings, this slight disappointment is notable.
Finally, TotalEnergies plaice of 1.5%. The oil group recorded a jump in its profits in 2021, driven by hydrocarbon prices. The results are ” solid, as expected “, according to analysts at RBC Capital, who nevertheless point out that while cash generation improved on a sequential basis in the fourth quarter, it is below expectations.