The European stock markets are hovering near their equilibrium (+0.1% in London, -0.1% in Frankfurt, +0.2% in Paris), in the wake of the inauguration of the new President of the United States and in anticipation of US corporate publications over the next few days.

'Donald Trump signed a multitude of executive orders on his first day in office. His proposed tariffs are particularly interesting from an economic point of view", Commerzbank pointed out this morning.

"Even if he has not ordered an immediate increase in tariffs, drastic measures are to be expected in the medium term", warned the German bank, which expects a general review of foreign trade policy by April.

The US is also expected to attract attention with the quarterly publications of big names such as Netflix, 3M, Procter & Gamble and Verizon this week, before the earnings season intensifies in the following weeks.

"It's easy to forget the importance of earnings on the S&P500 when its performance is instead boosted, as has been the case recently, by fluctuations in the T-bill market", pointed out Capital Economics early last week.

"Earnings will again be on the mind, however, when the quarterly season gets into full swing. We expect EPS to play a role in driving the index up to 7,000 by the end of 2025", continued the London-based research house.

The only European data item of the morning, the ZEW index, came in at +10.3, 5.4 points below its December value, reflecting a deterioration in economic sentiment among financial market experts for Germany.

This could be explained, among other things, by the negative GDP growth figures recently published and by increasing inflationary pressures", explains ZEW Institute President Achim Wambach.

In other stock news, Generali lost 1% in Milan following the announcement of a plan to merge the Italian insurance company's asset management activities with those of Natixis Investment Managers.

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