The Paris Bourse (+0.3%) should 'hold' above 7,950 and be in a position to test 8,000 tomorrow if Wall Street confirms its positive outlook.
The CAC40 is also benefiting from the surge in Bouygues (+8%), followed by Alstom (+5.8%) and ST-Micro (+2%), which offsets the -7% for Eurofins Scientific and -4.5% for Edenred.

Wall Street provided unexpected support: while the Dow Jones remained hesitant (-0.3%), the S&P500 went into the green (for the symbol), the Nasdaq advanced by 0.25% and returned to the 16,000 mark, the Nasdaq-100 (+0.3%) flirted with the 18,000 mark (Palo-Alto and Zoom gained +5%).

As investors prepare for several key statistics to be released in the coming days, the high level of valuations threatens to condemn the US stock market to stagnation.

At 23 times expected earnings, the S&P 500 index, which has already risen by over 6% since January 1, is 35% more expensive than its 20-year average of 17x, according to Citi.
Thursday's release of the PCE index of consumer spending excluding food and energy, the Federal Reserve's preferred indicator of inflation, will act as a test.

On the statistical front, US household sentiment deteriorated sharply in February (from 110.9 to 106.7 on a monthly basis, versus 114.8 in the 1st estimate), according to the Conference Board's monthly survey published on Tuesday.

For Conference Board chief economist Dana Peterson, this sudden deterioration reflects the persistent uncertainty surrounding the US economy.
The sub-index measuring respondents' assessment of their current situation fell to 147.2 from 154.9 the previous month, while the sub-index measuring their expectations dropped to 79.8 from 81.5 in January.

This morning, durable goods orders fell by 6.1% in January compared with December, following a sequential decline of 0.3% in December 2023, with the consensus forecast at -5%.

Excluding the usually erratic transportation sector, where orders plunged by 16.2% in January, US durable goods orders fell by just 0.3% last month.

On the bond market, the pause in the stock market ('risk-on') and the day's mediocre figures did not encourage a return to Treasuries, with the US ten-year yield hovering around 4.285% (-1Pt), and the 2-year tending towards 4.69%.
In Europe, our OATs deteriorated by +3Pts to 2.927%, and Bunds by +2Pts to 2.44%.

The euro remains stable against the greenback, at $1.0840/euro.

Brent crude rose +0.6% to over $83 a barrel in London, while WTI gained +0.8% to $78.3 on the NYMEX.

In French corporate news, conglomerate Bouygues reports net income (group share) of 1.04 billion euros for 2023, compared with 973 million the previous year, and recurring operating income from ordinary activities (ROCA) up 19% to 2.41 billion.

Orange and BNP Paribas announce that they have concluded their exclusive negotiations begun in June 2023, with the signing of agreements materializing their collaboration, including a referencing agreement concerning Orange Bank's customer portfolio in France.

Eurofins Scientific reports adjusted net profit of €568 million for the past year, or €2.71 per share, and adjusted EBITDA down 9.9% to €1.36 billion, at the upper end of its target range of €1.32-1.37 billion.

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