The Paris Bourse ended the session with a gain of 0.89%, at 7366 points. Earlier in the day, the Paris index had briefly ventured into previously uncharted territory, at 7387 points (the previous session record was 7384 points, in January 2022).

The Paris index was driven in particular by Orange (+6.4%) and Airbus (+4.9%), which benefited from a favorable wind following the publication of their quarterly results (see below). This momentum has enabled the CAC to gain some 14% since the start of the year.

The mood is less upbeat on the other side of the Atlantic, where all three indices - S&P500, Nasdaq and Dow Jones - are down 0.6%.

On the statistics front, producer prices rose by +0.7% in January in the United States (vs. +0.4% expected), mainly in the wake of the rebound in energy costs.

In addition, US jobless claims fell by 1,000 in the week to February 6, to 194,000 from 195,000 the previous week (revised from 196,000), according to the Labor Department, whereas a rise to 200,000 was expected.

Finally, the Commerce Department reported a 4.5% decline in US housing starts last month, to 1,309.000 at an annualized rate, below economists' expectations.

US building permits - which are supposed to predict future housing starts - remained stable (+0.1%) at an annualized rate of 1,339,000 in January, thus slightly missing the market consensus: it seems illusory to expect a real turnaround in the trend, as US long-term yields are climbing again (+4Pts to 3.894% on the 30-year).

These statistics will not reassure Wall Street about the Federal Reserve's interest-rate management, resulting in a strong dollar (1.0675/E, i.e. +0.1%) and a recovery in bond yields.
The inversion of the US yield curve remains impressive, with the '6-month' and '1-year' yields testing 5.0300% and 5.0200% respectively this afternoon.

The yield on 10-year US Treasuries has risen +3pts to 3.8380%, leading to a deterioration in Europe, with OATs at 2.95% (vs. 2.944% on Wednesday and 2.99% at the green high of 3.45pm) and Bunds at 2.4900% (vs. 2.474%).... and Italian BTPs add +6Pts to 3.3900%.

In company news, Orange unveils net income for 2022 of 2.62 billion euros, compared with 778 million in 2021, and organic cash flow from telecom activities up 27.4% to 3.06 billion, in line with its target of at least 2.9 billion.

Pernod Ricard reports a 29% increase in net income, group share, to 1.79 billion euros for the first half of 2022-23, mainly reflecting a rise in operating profit from ordinary activities (+12% in terms of organic growth) to 2.42 billion.

Renault Group claims a significant improvement in profitability for 2022, with net income from continuing operations up by 1.1 billion euros to 1.6 billion euros, and an automotive operating margin of 3.3%.

Finally, Airbus reported net income up 6% to 1.68 billion euros for the last three months of the year, on sales up 21% to 20.64 billion euros.

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