The 1st session of the February trading term was promising: the Paris Bourse, however, erased half of its initial gains (+1% towards 7.460 around 9.10am) before stabilizing and maintaining a 0.5% lead, around 7405/4,710 points, driven by Cap Gemini (+3.3%), Alstom (+2.3%), BNP Paribas (+2%).
The Euro-Stoxx50 also gained at +0.5%, around 4,470, while Amsterdam broke away with +0.9%.
Wall Street was expected to rise this morning, and a 3rd consecutive all-time record will be broken by the Nasdaq-100 (and a second on the 'S&P' and the Nasdaq Composite), up +0.5% to 17.400 (the 'S&P', with a gain of more than 0.3%, is flirting with 4,855).

This morning saw a real mini-crash on the Shenzhen stock market, with -5.4% and -12.3% cumulative since the start of the year (disappointing business figures published in China this morning).
The Hang-Seng in Hong Kong (-2.3% on Monday and -12.2% year-on-year) is back to its late-October 2022 lows, having fallen 13 out of 15 sessions since January 1.
The week ahead promises to be a busy one on the economic front, culminating in the European Central Bank's (ECB) monetary policy meeting on Thursday, ahead of the Fed's meeting next week.

In view of the statements made by its President, Christine Lagarde, last Wednesday in Davis, the Frankfurt-based institute is likely to resist market calls for a rate cut as early as March.

Investors are likely to be disappointed', warns Christopher Dembik, Investment Strategy Advisor at Pictet AM.

'In the very short term, it is not in the ECB's interest to reveal too much about the timing of the first rate cut and the pace of the easing process', he adds.

Given the uncertainties surrounding the evolution of monetary policy in Europe and the United States, traders will be focusing on company results, which are set to multiply this week.

Investors are hoping that the releases of numerous technology heavyweights such as Netflix, Tesla, IBM and Intel will give the market a new lease of life.

These announcements will be closely watched as Wall Street set new record highs on Friday evening, still buoyed by the good form of semiconductor and AI-related stocks.

Several European stock market giants are also due to publish their accounts over the coming days, including ASML, LVMH, Nokia, SAP and STMicroelectronics.

The week will also be punctuated by PMI activity indices for Europe, due on Wednesday, followed by the first estimate of fourth-quarter US growth, due on Thursday.

On the bond front, the upward trend in US Treasury yields is easing slightly after a heavy +25Pts last week on all maturities from 2 to 30 years.
The yield on the US 10-year note eased by -6pts to 4.087%, while its German equivalent, the Bund with the same maturity, also eased by -6pts to 2.245% and our OATs by -5.6pts to 2.7700%.
Brent crude oil is little changed (at $78 a barrel in London), while the euro is down 0.1% against the greenback, at around $1.0885 a barrel.

La Française des Jeux (FDJ) climbs +5% after reporting recurring EBITDA of 675 million euros for 2023, i.e. a margin of 25.1% on sales of 2.62 billion euros, up 6.5% (+2.8% on a like-for-like basis).

Crédit Agricole announces the acquisition of a 7% minority stake in Worldline, continuing the strategic partnership between the two groups, for which the signature of a binding agreement was announced in July 2023.

Finally, S.T. Dupont today announces the launch of a capital increase with preferential subscription rights to raise 25 million euros, to be paid up either in cash or by offsetting debts.

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