By around 12:00 pm, the CAC 40 was down by about 0.2%, hovering near 8,220 points, while the pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 edged up 0.1%. London's FTSE remained flat and Frankfurt's DAX gained 0.2%.

For the record, the Nasdaq 100 dropped 1.38% on Thursday to 24,550 points, its lowest level in over two months. The S&P 500 slipped -1.23% to 6,798 points, and the Dow Jones lost its status as a counterweight to the tech sector's decline, falling -1.2% to 48,909 points.

The bloodbath in the software and digital services sector continued, as investors feared that the disruptive tools unveiled this week by Anthropic could render the business models of tech giants obsolete.

Amazon did little to dispel fears of an AI bubble last night, announcing during its quarterly results release its intention to invest around $200 billion in 2026.

Nevertheless, European stock markets are showing resilience this Friday in this context, even though "recent movements tend to suggest that volatility is likely to remain high in the coming weeks," according to Invest Securities.

"We'll have to wait until the end of February, or even the end of March, to confirm or refute the consensus scenario forecasting a strong rebound in results for 2026 (+14.9%) after near-stability in 2025 (+1.6%)," the research firm said regarding European equities.


German Industrial Production Slumps

Turning to this morning's statistics, after a modest 0.2% increase in November (revised down from an initially announced 0.8% rise), German industrial production by volume fell by 1.9% in December 2025 compared to the previous month.

France saw its trade deficit widen to 4.84 billion euros in December 2025, compared to 4.04 billion euros the previous month, according to seasonally and calendar-adjusted customs data.

It should be noted that the Department of Labor has postponed the release of its January employment report (initially scheduled for today) to February 11, due to the "shutdown" that affected the U.S. federal administration in recent days.


Stellantis Heavily Penalized, Vinci in the Spotlight

In terms of Paris-listed stocks, Stellantis (-23%) suffered a brutal correction after a costly strategic shift. The group will book 22 billion euros in exceptional charges in the second half, resulting in a net loss exceeding 20 billion euros in 2025.

Société Générale (-5%) slid despite a solid fourth quarter: the market remains focused on a decline in FICC revenues (-13%) and prefers to wait and see, despite a dividend of 1.61 euros and a 1.46 billion euro share buyback.

Conversely, Vinci soared to the top of the CAC 40 (+8%) after the construction and concessions group posted solid 2025 results and strong 2026 outlook, an overall performance buoyed by favorable analyst opinions.