After hovering around its equilibrium point throughout the day, the Paris Bourse finally closed the session with a moderate gain of 0.26%, at 7050 points, supported in particular by Publicis (+3%), Engie (+2.8%) and Veolia (+1.6%).

Reactions were limited after the release of the US "composite PMI" published by S&P-Global: the purchasing managers' index for the manufacturing and services sectors rose to 46.6 (from 45 in December), a 3-month high.

In detail, the "services" PMI (tertiary) rose from 44.7 to 46.6 between December and January (beating a consensus of 45). The manufacturing PMI (industry) climbed from 46.2 to 46.8 (vs. 46 expected, a 2-month high).

Earlier, investors took note of encouraging figures from the S&P Global Composite PMI index of eurozone activity (flash estimate).

This rose for a third consecutive month in January, to 50.2 vs. 49.3 in December, back above the 50 mark of unchanged.

The index thus points to modest growth in the eurozone's private sector, the first since June 2022, thanks to the services sector whose index rose to 50.7, while manufacturing production (index up to 49) fell only slightly.

In France, the indicator is a little more mixed. The PMI flash composite index of overall activity in France, fell from 49.1 in December 2022 to 49 in January, signalling a third consecutive monthly decline in French private-sector business activity.

Manufacturers' performance continued to weigh heavily on that of the economy as a whole, with a further decline in manufacturing output, while the services sector posted its biggest drop in activity since March 2021.

The fragility of demand continues to weigh on France's economic performance, with overall new business volume down again in January", notes Joe Hayes, senior economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The picture is rather different across the Channel, where the S&P Global/CIPS private sector activity index for Great Britain fell to 47.8 in January from 49.0 in December, the lowest forecast in the Reuters consensus of economists.

The decline is blamed on rising interest rates, recurrent strikes and weak demand.

On the US corporate quarterly results front, Halliburton and J&J significantly exceeded expectations, while 3M and Lockheed Martin disappointed.

On the bond front, a slight improvement materialized on our OATs (-4Pts to 2.615%), Bunds (-2.5Pts to 2.176%) and Italian BTPs (-7Pts to 3.946%).
Across the Atlantic, despite the rise in the Composite PMI, US T-Bonds eased -3.5pts to 3.484%, and have been extending their advance since 2.30 p.m.

Meanwhile, the Euro-Dollar exchange rate is stable at $1.0870 to the euro (today's range: 1.0850/1.0900).

In French company news, Eurobio Scientific announced last night that it had recorded sales of 152.5 million euros in fiscal year 2022, down 17% on 2021.

Israeli company CytoReason announced last night that it had signed a licensing agreement with Sanofi for the use of its artificial intelligence tools to discover new drugs.

Technip Energies announces that, as part of its long-term agreement with Aramco, it has been awarded a contract to modernize the sulfur recovery infrastructure at Aramco's Riyadh refinery.

In a business update, Carmat announces that it expects to reach a production capacity of 500 prostheses in 2024 and 1,000 prostheses by 2027, as well as break-even within five years, in 2027.

Air France has announced that it is offering a new channel for customer exchanges on the WhatsApp instant messaging application, available seven days a week in 22 countries and in four languages (French, English, Italian, Portuguese/Brazilian).

Finally, Interparfums is down 0.8% despite the announcement of record sales of 706.6 million euros for the past year, up 26% (+20% at constant exchange rates), including nearly 200 million euros in the last quarter, an increase of over 60%.

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