(CercleFinance.com) - The Paris stock market is hesitant: first slightly down, then slightly up, then down again, by -0.3 in contact with the 7,400... then close to equilibrium again (in non-existent volumes) as Wall Street continues its string of bullish sessions.

The Euro-Stoxx50 is back in the green, rising by +0.3%, while the Amsterdam stock market is completely detached, rising by over 1% in the wake of giant Unilever, which leapt by +5%.
On Wall Street, the Nasdaq gained 0.4%, the S&P500 (+0.1% to 4,560) went up for the 11th time in 12 sessions, and the Dow Jones (+0.05%, above 35,420) was in the running to achieve an incredible 12/12, a historic series, while operators judged visibility to be poor and the outlook for the 2nd half of the year more uncertain than ever.

As on the previous day, this session was dominated by a flood of quarterly results, but also by key economic events.

Germany's Ifo business climate index shows a sharp drop in confidence, down -1.3Pts (from 88.6 to 87.3), and the "business leaders' assessment of current conditions" component falls -2.4Pts to 91.3 (vs. 93 expected).
A very different mood on the other side of the Atlantic, with a sharp rise in the Conference Board's consumer confidence index from 110.1 to 117 (vs. 112 expected), to a 2-year high, shows the Conference Board's monthly survey.

The consumer assessment of their current situation component rose to 160 from 155.3 last month, but it was the expectations sub-index that improved the most, to 88.3 from 80 last month, with consumers reassured by lower fuel prices and a robust labor market.

Across the Atlantic, many of the big names in the stock market will be releasing their quarterly results today, including Microsoft, Alphabet, Visa, General Motors, General Electric and Spotify (which is down -12% on below-consensus sales).
In France, Essilor-Luxottica and LVMH are expected to publish their results this evening, after the close of trading.

Investors are also likely to be relatively cautious ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy decision, expected tomorrow evening at 8 p.m.
The Fed's policy committee meeting begins today and will conclude on Wednesday with a press conference by Chairman Jerome Powell.
In the meantime, long yields are down slightly, with +2.8pts on our OATs to 2.975%, +3.1pts on Bunds to 2.42% and US T-Bonds under pressure by +5.5pts to 3.91%.

In French company news, Thales has reached an agreement with Thoma Bravo, a major software investment firm, to acquire 100% of Imperva. Imperva is the US leader in data and application cybersecurity. The acquisition has an enterprise value of $3.6 billion.

TotalEnergies announces the acquisition of the entire share capital of Total Eren, increasing its stake from nearly 30% to 100%. Total Eren's teams will be fully integrated into the oil and gas group's renewables business unit.

Alstom reports sales of nearly 4.2 billion euros for its first quarter 2023-24 (April to June), up 4.3% year-on-year (+7.6% organic), 'in line with the targeted trajectory'.

Société Générale announces the success of the capital increase reserved for its employees and retirees, as part of its 2023 Global Employee Share Ownership Plan (the 30th proposed by the Group), which has just been completed.

Finally, Orpea announces that its accelerated safeguard plan has been approved by the Nanterre Specialized Commercial Court. According to Laurent Guillot, the group's CEO, this decision 'will enable new shareholders to take a stake in a group that will already have a completely different face'.


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