The Paris stock market has just doubled its losses in the space of 1 hour, and the CAC40 is now down by more than 1% at 7,580.

The CAC is weighed down by the -11% plunge in Dassault Systèmes, -8.5% in BNP-Paribas, -4.5% in Sanofi and -4.2% in Sté Générale.

The euro-Stoxx50 limited the damage: -0.3% to 4,630pts, while Wall Street attempted to erase some of the previous day's losses, with the S&P500 recovering +0.2 and the Nasdaq +0.4% (after -2.2% on Wednesday evening).... but the Dow Jones is back in the red.

Wall Street had been feeling the pinch after the Fed last night emphasized its intention to take its time and not rush into rate cuts.

Although, as expected, the central bank kept rates unchanged, Jerome Powell's speech dashed hopes of monetary easing as early as March.

The Fed is confirming its pivot, but does not want to make the mistake of cutting rates too quickly", says Bastien Drut, Head of Strategy and Economic Research at CPR AM.

As a result, only 35% of traders still expect a rate cut in March, according to FedWatch, compared with 73% a month ago.

The VIX volatility index surged yesterday afternoon in New York to 14.3, its highest level since mid-January, i.e. during the correction at the start of the year... but the 'volat' is down -4% this Thursday.

While the tech giants' releases have so far been coolly received, reinforcing investors' pessimism, the announcements from Apple, Amazon and Meta will be of particular importance this evening.

Meanwhile, on the statistics front, it's a busy day:
non-farm productivity in the US rose by 3.2% at an annualized rate in Q4 2023, according to the Labor Department's preliminary estimate, following a 4.9% increase in the previous quarter.

A 0.4% increase in the number of hours worked and a 3.7% rise in hourly wages should be noted: non-farm unit labor costs in the USA rose by 0.5% in the last quarter of 2023.

The US manufacturing sector saw its activity pick up in January, according to S&P Global, whose PMI index for the sector came in at 50.7 for the month, compared with 50.3 in the flash estimate and 47.9 in December.

While production was penalized by longer lead times, new orders returned to growth, but cost inflation accelerated to its highest rate for nine months

The Labor Department announced 224,000 new jobless claims in the US for the week of January 22, up 9,000 on the previous week's revised figure (215,000 instead of the 214,000 initially announced).

In Europe, the PMI HCOB buyers' index for the French manufacturing industry, produced by S&P Global, was released this morning: it improved from 42.1 in December to 43.1 in January, but continued to signal a sharp deterioration in the sector's economic situation.

The HCOB PMI index for the eurozone manufacturing industry, meanwhile, climbed from 44.4 in December to 46.6 in January, its highest level for ten months, signalling a slowdown in the sector's contraction for a third consecutive month.

Finally, the eurozone's annual inflation rate is estimated at 2.8% in January 2024, down slightly from 2.9% in December 2023, according to a flash estimate published by Eurostat, the European Union's statistical office.

The bond markets, which had eased sharply the previous day, continued their downward trend, with the T-Bond down 14 basis points to 3.824%, and the 30-year down 14 basis points to 4.0740%.

On the European Treasury bond front, Bunds eased -11pts to 2.123%, OATs -9pts to 2.632% and Italian BTPs -10.5pts to 3.705%.

With the prospect of US rate cuts postponed, the dollar continues to show strength against the euro, remaining unchanged at $1.0820/euro.

Brent crude is down 0.3%, at around $81.5 a barrel.

Lastly, in news from French companies, Dassault Systèmes (-11%) reported non-IFRS EPS of 1.20 euro for 2023, up 12% at constant exchange rates, "i.e. a doubling in five years as initially announced", despite an adjusted operating margin down one point to 32.4%.

BNP Paribas (-8.5%) reports distributable income for 2023 of 11.2 billion euros, up 10.2% and in line with its target, with the Group highlighting revenue growth, a positive jaws effect and a low cost of risk.

Kaufman & Broad reports a 23% increase in net income (group share) to 60.2 million euros for 2023, with recurring operating margin up 0.3 points to 7.8% and total sales up 7% to 1.41 billion (excl. VAT).

Canal+ confirms that it has submitted to the Board of Directors of MultiChoice a letter containing a non-binding indicative offer to acquire all the issued ordinary shares of MultiChoice that it does not already hold.

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