The Paris stock market ended the final session of the week with a gain of 0.98%, at 7709 points, driven by Stellantis, Pernod Ricard and Teleperformance (+2.8% each), bringing the Paris index close to a 4% gain over the past week.

The month of January comes to a close this Friday with a record +6%...
compared with +1% for the US indices (the S&P was zero on Thursday evening) since December 20, 2024 ('4 Witches').

Wall Street greeted this '3 witches' session with a gain of +1% on the Dow Jones, +1.7% on the Nasdaq and the S&P500 broke through 6,000Pts for the symbol.

Note that the DAX40 and FT100 - against the tide of a negative economic climate - broke absolute records at nearly 21,000 and 8,500Pts respectively.

Note that all speculative assets have been soaring for the past 48 hours, particularly cryptos, with BTC at $104,500 versus $90,000 at the start of the week... and literally rocketing higher since 3pm.

As a reminder, yesterday's gains were based on a surge in the luxury goods sector, supported by Richemont's encouraging publication, but also by lower-than-expected US consumer price figures for December, which the previous day had reinforced expectations of further rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.

Today, the CAC40 is benefiting from the Bayrou government's non-censure, which rules out a new sequence of political turbulence.

On the "macro" front, US industrial production rose by 0.9% in December according to the Fed (more than expected), after a modest +0.1% in November.

The Fed points out that 'higher aircraft and parts production contributed 0.2 percentage points to this growth following the resolution of a work stoppage at a major aircraft manufacturer (i.e. Boeing)'.

Also according to the Federal Reserve, the capacity utilization rate in US industry improved by 0.6 points to 77.6% in December, a level still 2.1 points below its long-term average (1972-2023).

The Commerce Department reported a 15.8% jump in US housing starts in December 2024 compared with the previous month, to an annualized rate of 1,499,000.

Building permits for US homes - thought to foreshadow future housing starts - were down 0.7% to 1,483,000 last month.

This morning, investors discovered the final figures for December consumer prices in the eurozone. According to Eurostat's preliminary estimate, inflation rebounded from 2.2% to 2.4% last month, a recovery mainly attributable to base effects affecting energy prices, which should not worry the ECB too much.

On the government bond market, the US ten-year yield balanced out at 4.595% (-20pts on the week), moving away from the peak of over 4.80% reached at the start of the week.

The German equivalent eased -3pts to 2.49%, while French OAT yields fell -4pts to 3.29%, narrowing the spread between the two countries' government bonds to 80 basis points.

Oil, whose surge has been one of the highlights of the early part of the year, remains close to its highest levels since last summer.

Brent crude is down 0.5% to $81 a barrel, while the euro is holding steady at around $1.03.

In French company news, Renault Group announces the signature of an agreement for the creation of a joint venture between Mobilize, its brand dedicated to new mobilities, and NW, 'the French leader in electricity storage and the first French unicorn in the energy transition'

Crédit Agricole Personal Finance & Mobility, already a 50% shareholder in Sline, announces the acquisition of the entire capital of this fintech offering a rental solution for e-tailers and merchants.

Quadient announces that 'a leading US provider of integrated cloud solutions for human capital and payroll management', has selected its Quadient Inspire customer communications management (CCM) platform.


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