he Paris Bourse (+0.8%) has surpassed the 8% mark since January 1st, and the CAC40 even peaked at 7,016Pts... after the publication of the US CPI, which came in perfectly in line with expectations.

But there's something even more striking: at 20,600Pts around 2:45pm, the CAC40 'GR' was less than 2% away from its all-time record of 21,030Pts.030Pts on January 5, 2022: a war, a recession, soaring interest rates and record indebtedness separate us from the 21,000 tested 1 year ago, when the CAC40's valuation was considered staggering.
What's gone right since then?
Perhaps inflation is showing the first signs of easing... and the markets are extrapolating a bright future for 2024.

The CPI published by the Labor Department rose by 6.5% in December 2022 compared with the same month in 2021, the lowest annual rate since October 2021 and broadly in line with economists' expectations.

Excluding energy (+7.3%) and food (+10.4%), two traditionally volatile categories, the annual inflation rate stood at 5.7% last month, a level broadly in line with market expectations.
On a sequential basis, i.e. between November and December 2022, US consumer prices eased by 0.1% on a reported basis, but rose by 0.3% excluding energy and food.

The labor market, which remains one of the FED's most closely watched indicators, remains fascinatingly robust, with US jobless claims falling by 1,000 in the week to January 2, to 205,000 from 206,000 (revised from the initial estimate of 204.000) the previous week, according to the Labor Department.
The CPI seems to be a "non-event" for the bond markets: US T-Bonds are even tending to deteriorate compared with this morning, as the 10-year is virtually unchanged at 3.553% (vs. 3.455% this morning) and our OATs are easing by -6Pts to 2.614% after having posted a low of 2.54%, i.e. -13Pts.
Some movement on the FOREX with the Dollar down to 1.0840 against the Euro, but recovering slightly to 1.0790 (-0.4%).


In company news, Worldline reports that it has finalized the acquisition of a 40% stake in Online Payment Platform, a Dutch online payment services provider offering a payment solution dedicated to marketplaces and platforms in the C2C segment in particular.

TotalEnergies announces the start-up of its 18th biogas production unit in France, named BioBéarn and located at Mourenx in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques region. With a maximum capacity of 160 gigawatt-hours (GWh), it will be the largest in the country.

Orpea (-15%) announced last night that negotiations with its creditors were continuing on its financial restructuring project. In a press release, the retirement home operator reminds us that it has entered into negotiations for a 'drastic' financial restructuring involving the capitalization of 3.8 billion euros of unsecured debt.
One could almost detect a desire to push the share price back down after a +40% surge... even though the company has never communicated when the share price collapsed.

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