The demonstrations against pension reform in France did not rattle investors: after spending most of the session in the red, the Paris Bourse finally climbed back to its equilibrium point during the afternoon.

At the final gong, it ended its run at exactly the same level as the previous day, i.e. at 7082 points, perfectly stable, with a variation of 0.00%.

Paris had lost as much as 0.75% by mid-day, before gradually making up lost ground in the wake of Wall Street, with the S&P500 currently claiming 0.6%, just behind the Nasdaq (+1%).

January thus ended with a record gain of +9.45% for the CAC40.

The session was punctuated by a whole series of statistics. French GDP for Q4 came in at +0.1% (after +0.2% in Q3), slightly ahead of economists' forecasts of stable activity.

The prospect of a recession in the Eurozone therefore seems to be receding, as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) revised upwards its economic forecasts for the global economy, now expecting growth of 2.9% this year, compared with +2.7% in its October outlook.
On a year-on-year basis, GDP grew by 1.9% in the eurozone and 1.8% in the EU over the last three months of last year, slowing after +2.3% in the eurozone and +2.5% in the EU in the previous quarter.
In France, inflation climbed back to 6% in January (estimate).

Unemployment rose again in Germany in January, increasing by 0.3 percentage points month-on-month to 5.7% in January.
Consumer spending literally collapsed by -5.3% in December, casting a shadow over growth in 2023.

Destatis, the German statistics institute, announced on Tuesday that it had postponed publication of the inflation figures due to be released today, citing a technical problem linked to data processing.
In the United States, the Chicago PMI disappointed with a score of 44.3 versus 45.3 expected.

Finally, the Conference Board's consumer confidence index worsened in January, down to 107.1 for the current month, versus 109 in December, a level below the consensus, which gave it unchanged at 109.

Last month's figure was revised sharply upwards, having initially been announced at 108.3.

On the bond front, the deterioration observed the previous day came to a halt with a symbolic rebound in OATs and Bunds.
Their yields eased by -0.5pts to 2.7650% and 2.3000% respectively.

In the United States, calm reigns 24 hours ahead of the FED's final statement, with a symbolic -1Pt change in T-Bonds to 3.5420%.

On the foreign exchange market, the euro remains more or less stable against the greenback, trading at $1.086.
A slight decline in oil prices: -1.25% to $84.5 a barrel in London, while the IMF forecasts global growth of +2.9% in 2023.

In company news, Technip Energies reports that it has won a front-end engineering design (FEED) contract for the world's largest low-carbon hydrogen project for ExxonMobil in Baytown, Texas.

At the end of the first nine months of its 2022-23 financial year, Wavestone posted sales of 376.2 million euros, up 11%, of which +5% on a like-for-like basis (with a day effect of -1%).

Orange announces the appointment of Jean-François Fallacher as CEO of Orange France, effective April 3. He will replace Fabienne Dulac, who after eight years at the head of Orange France, will nevertheless remain on the Executive Committee.

Finally, Airbus announced the launch of two defense R&D projects it is coordinating within the framework of the European Defense Fund (EDF) 2021. Airbus Defence and Space is coordinating the European Defence Operational Collaborative Cloud (EDOCC) project, while Airbus Helicopters is coordinating the EU Next Generation Rotorcraft Technologies Project (ENGRT).

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