The Paris stock market is stable at around 7570 points, in search of a breath of fresh air to end the year.

While the final sessions before the holidays are usually buoyant, the lingering questions surrounding interest rates could weigh on trading in the absence of any real catalysts.

Last Friday, New York Fed President John Williams cooled the markets' ardor by declaring that it was "premature" to envisage a Fed rate cut as early as March.

His counterpart at the Atlanta Fed, Raphael Bostic, echoed this view, saying that an easing of the Fed's monetary policy was not "imminent".

With 2023 shaping up to be one of the best stock market years in more than a decade, it seems unlikely that there will be any major profit-taking between now and the New Year.

The CAC 40 reached a new all-time high above 7653.9 points last Thursday, a record that is unlikely to be the last, thanks to the strong performance of its various technical indicators, according to chart analysts.

The CAC 40 index should gain a few more points", predict the chartists at Kiplink Finance, who point out that the final sessions of the year are often a good time to dress up balance sheets.

The more conciliatory approach of the central banks, the main driving force behind this year's surge in equity markets, should also remain in place and continue to support them next year.

With the exception of the final Eurozone inflation figures for November and the latest US housing statistics, today's macroeconomic agenda is virtually empty.

The rest of the week will nevertheless be marked on Friday by the release of the US 'PCE' inflation index - closely watched by the Fed - which will be the highlight of the week.

On the bond market, the upward "rally" of recent weeks is taking a slight breather, but this remains in the realm of consolidation or simple technical "pullback".

At around 3.95%, the yield on 10-year Treasuries remains well below the technical threshold of 4%, while the yield on the German Bund for the same maturity, the benchmark for the eurozone as a whole, is barely down at 2.08%.

In other French company news, TotalEnergies announces a second renewable electricity sales contract (CPPA) with petrochemist LyondellBasell, to which it will now supply 275 MWac (358 MW) of green electricity from its Cottonwood Bayou and Brazoria Solar farms in Texas.

Virbac says it now expects sales growth at constant exchange rates and scope of consolidation to be around 4%, rather than between 2% and 4%.

Finally, Thales announces that it has teamed up with SK Telecom (SKT), Korea's largest mobile operator, to successfully carry out advanced stress tests in post-quantum cryptography.

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