The Paris Bourse ended the final session of the week with a 0.7% gain to 7966 points, a new all-time closing record, driven by Air Liquide (+2.2%), Capgemini (+2%) and Michelin (+1.8%).

The Paris index also set a new intraday record, peaking at 7976 points. The CAC40 gained just over 2.5% over the past week, and already 5.6% since the start of the year.

The Paris market benefited from the bullish momentum that spread to all stock markets following Nvidia's insolent results in the US. The chip and AI specialist broke through the $2,000 billion market capitalization barrier (more than the GDP of Canada).

On Thursday, the stock also shattered the record for the biggest capital gain in history in 24 hours, with +$277 billion (more than the GDP of Portugal or New Zealand).

In a market where performance is highly concentrated, Nvidia's excellent results are certainly much more important for the short-term trajectory of the stock market than any statistics or central bank decisions", analyzes Christopher Dembik.

On the statistics front, this morning investors learned of a 0.3% decline in German GDP in volume terms between the 3rd and 4th quarters, according to CVS-CJO data from the Federal Statistics Office, which thus confirms its first estimate published on January 30.

In addition, Germany's Ifo business climate index rose from 85.2 in January to 85.5 in February, a rise 'entirely attributable to an improvement in the expectations component', according to Capital Economics (business leaders are openly banking on a rate cut in the second half of 2024).

Bond markets are - at last - enjoying an upturn, although stock markets remain in risk-on mode, with the 10-year T-Bond easing 7pts to 4.25%, while the German Bund of the same maturity stagnates at 2.35%.

The euro and dollar remain unchanged at $1.082/EUR. Gold appreciates by 0.6% to $2037/oz.

Note the sharp fall in oil prices (-1.3% for Brent crude to $82.3), despite being stable this morning at $83.4 after peaking overnight at $83.95 (losing -1.2% for the week).

In other stock news, Capgemini announces the extension of its strategic alliance with Unity, a platform for the creation and exploitation of interactive 3D content in real time, from which it will acquire its corporate services business specializing in digital twins.

Bouygues Telecom announces an exclusive agreement with La Poste to acquire its subsidiary La Poste Telecom, the leading virtual operator on the French market, for an enterprise value of 963.4 million euros.

Sanofi reports that the U.S. FDA has agreed to grant priority review to its supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) for its Dupixent (dupilumab) in a potential sixth indication.

Michelin announces the construction of 'Sweden's first end-of-life tire recycling plant', in collaboration with Antin - the joint venture's majority shareholder - and Enviro - which has an option to become a 'major minority shareholder'.

Alstom announces that it has begun production of Metropolis trains for the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation's (DMRC) Phase IV. Awarded in November 2022, the order is for 52 trainsets, each comprising six cars.


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