The Paris stock market lost 0.8% this morning, around 7,470 points, penalized by the heavy decline of Alstom, which lost nearly 6% behind LVMH (-2.8%).

Christopher Dembik, investment strategist at Pictet AM, analyzed this morning: "A period of doubt often follows the euphoria of the end-of-year period.

Professionals point out that the period of doubt that assails the world's stock markets at the start of the year is never likely to last too long.

"It is likely that we will have more visibility on the trajectory of the economy and the markets by the end of the month," reminds Christopher Dembik.

While it's not surprising to see a pause after the rapid rise of most risky assets in the last two months of 2023, we believe that the outlook for bonds and, especially, equities, is promising for 2024 as a whole", add the teams at Capital Economics.

Many strategists say they expect the S&P 500, the benchmark index for US managers, to reach the 5,000-point mark this year, representing a theoretical rise of around 5%.

With regard to Europe, analysts point to the low valuation of Old World equities and a very marked discount to US markets, which they believe is set to narrow.

According to the economists at Swiss Life Asset Managers, global stock markets offer a realistic potential return of 3% to 7% (total return) in 2024, given the prospects for earnings growth.

The attention of investors returning from their vacations will focus this Wednesday on the publication in the USA of the ISM manufacturing index, which is expected to rise for the month of December after remaining stable for the previous month.

In the meantime, the markets were informed this morning of a rise in the number of jobseekers in Germany. The number of jobseekers rose by 31,000 in December compared with the previous month, to 2,637,000, or 5.7% of the working population (+0.1 points), according to the monthly report from the Federal Employment Agency.

On the bond front, the 10-year German Bund rate, the benchmark for European risk-free rates, fell by 3.1pts to 2.1%, after a year-end rally described as "out of the ordinary".

The yield on 10-year US Treasuries also tightened, to around 3.95%, after falling steadily for more than two months.

On the currency markets, the euro rebounded unconvincingly, hovering around $1.0960, with traders believing that sluggish growth, falling inflation and the prospect of monetary easing augur well for a weak single currency this year.

In French corporate news, the Equasens group announced last night that it had acquired a 70% majority stake in start-up Digipharmacie. Created in 2019, this structure is a 'pure player' in the field of digitizing pharmacy supplier invoices.

Roctool announces that it has signed an agreement with ENRX for the latter to invest two million euros in Roctool's capital, at a price of 1.80 euros per share, giving ENRX a 17.47% stake in the molding technology specialist.

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