The Paris stock market remains literally frozen (-0.1% or perfect stability) with 1/2 an hour to go before the close (after a timid 0.3% rise this morning)... and the billion-euro mark in transactions has still not been passed.

The change of government leaves our investors unmoved; perhaps they'll feel more inspired when they discover the list of ministers.

No reaction either to production figures for the French manufacturing industry: it edged up in November by +0.3% after +0.2% in October, and rebounded in industry as a whole (+0.5% after -0.3%), according to Insee's CVS-CJO data.

The Euro-Stoxx50 is also 'flat' at 4,466pts (as are the CAC and DAX), after oscillating narrowly between 4,460 and 4,480, in volumes worthy of a December 24th trading day.

Market initiatives remain limited ahead of a busy weekend of economic indicators and results.

Wall Street edged upwards, but spreads did not exceed 0.2% on the Dow Jones or the S&P500, with the Nasdaq gaining 0.3% in the wake of Nvidia (+2.5%), which smashed a new all-time record at $545.5, up 10% since January 1, already the best performance of the Fantastic 7.

This wait-and-see mood is set to prevail until tomorrow's release of US inflation data, which will help determine the trajectory of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy.

The fourth-quarter earnings season for US companies is also due to get underway on Friday, with releases from major banking groups JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo.

Today's session will also see no major movement on the bond market, in the absence of any major economic indicators: US wholesale inventories fell slightly again, by 0.2% in November 2023, according to the Commerce Department, after -0.3% in October.... data which are 2 months old and irrelevant for determining future trends.

US T-Bonds are easing -1Pt to 4.005%, while Bunds and our OATs are rallying +1Pt to 2.199% and 2.7320% respectively.

Note that oil erased its +1.4% (to $78.6) after the publication of data from the US Energy Information Agency (EIA): they showed that US crude oil inventories stood at 432.4 million barrels in the week to January 1, signalling a modest increase of 1.3 million barrels on the previous week.

Inventories of distillates - including heating oil - rose by 6.5 million barrels, while gasoline stocks were up by 8 million barrels, again compared with the previous week, the agency continues.
Finally, the EIA reports that refineries operated at 92.9% of capacity during the same week, with average production of 9.7 million barrels/day.

On the currency front, the euro accelerated its advance against the dollar, gaining 0.4% to 1.0970.

In company news, Valneva announces the vaccination of the first participant in its Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating the safety and immunogenicity of two different doses of its single-injection chikungunya vaccine in children.

TotalEnergies announces that it has signed an agreement with Impact Oil and Gas Namibia (Pty) Ltd to acquire additional interests of 10.5% in Block 2913B and 9.39% in Block 2912, operated by the French oil and gas group in Namibia.

Finally, Vantiva (formerly known as Technicolor) announces the completion of a reserved capital increase of nearly 87.6 million euros, paid up by debt set-off, with cancellation of the preferential subscription right in favor of CommScope.

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