The CAC (-0.2%) has been consolidating in a flat range (between 7,325 and 7,345) since 10:45 this morning.
After a promising start to the week (and to the March trading deadline) with an initial gain of 0.4% (in line with the previous week's upward funicular), the CAC40 index quickly returned to zero, then drifted sideways around a pivot point of 7340.

Unsurprisingly, trading was anecdotal, with just 1.35 billion euros exchanged with just over 35 minutes to go: we're heading for a session with less than 2 billion euros traded.
This apathy, which was also seen on the Euro-Stoxx50 (-0.2%) and the DAX (-0.1%), resulted from the absence of a session on Wall Street, which was closed due to the commemoration of the birth of George Washington.

Traders have no reason to take any initiative in the absence of major economic indicators, with no statistics on the day's agenda.

After a quiet day on the macroeconomic front on Monday, the rest of the week will be marked by several important dates, including tomorrow's publication of the latest PMI activity indices in Europe, before the release of the German Ifo business climate index on Wednesday.

For the time being, the only sticking point seems to be diplomatic relations between the United States and China, both on the issue of spy balloons and on Beijing's possible support for Moscow in the Ukrainian conflict.
On the bond front, President's Day in the U.S. is also causing activity in Europe to plunge, with scores of little significance: the small mid-day upturn has already disappeared (-0.3Pts on our OATs at 2.919% and -0.5Pt on Bunds at 2.455%, stability for Italian BTPs).

On the corporate front, earnings season is now officially drawing to a close, with only 61 of the S&P 500 companies, including two Dow Jones components, due to publish their accounts this week.

In Europe, some of the big names such as BASF, Capgemini, Engie, Holcim, HSBC, Stellantis and Telefonica will also be reporting in the coming days.

On the bond front, European markets are stabilizing after ending the past week on a favorable note, with German Bunds holding steady at around 2.44% and French OATs at 2.90%.

In company news, Icade reports net current cash flow (NCFC) for 2022 up 7% to around 417 million euros (+5.9% to 5.50 euros per share), "above guidance", on IFRS sales up 9% to 1.8 billion euros.

Riber shares rose sharply on Monday morning (+2.3%) on the Paris Bourse, the manufacturer of equipment for the semiconductor industry having announced that it had won a contract in Asia.

Finally, Technip Energies reports that it has won a front-end engineering design (FEED) contract from Arcadia eFuels to design the first commercial-scale plant for the production of sustainable aviation fuels, located in Vordingborg, Denmark.


Copyright (c) 2023 CercleFinance.com. All rights reserved.