The Paris stock market ended the first session of the week with a limited decline of 0.46%, to 7929 points, penalized in particular by Carrefour, which lost nearly 3.9%, behind Veolia (-2.2%) and Alstom (-1.9%), and in limited volumes, with just 2.5 billion euros traded since the opening.

Since the start of the year, the Paris market has already posted gains of over 5%, which could prompt some investors to withdraw their profits. As a reminder, the Paris index set a series of record highs last week, reaching an all-time high of 7976 pts.

Nevertheless, "just because the markets are trading at all-time highs doesn't necessarily mean that investors will start to tire", notes Craig Fehr, strategist at Edward Jones.

Still, it seems reasonable to think that the markets will catch their breath in the short term, given the speed and scale of the recent upward rally", he analyzes.

A certain amount of caution may be called for, particularly in the run-up to the release of US inflation figures, which could influence the Federal Reserve's next monetary policy decisions.

Thursday will see the release of the monthly figures for the PCE consumer price index in the USA, one of the statistics most closely watched by the Fed and expected to rise by 0.4% month-on-month in January.

'Ideally, a PCE core index of around 0.2% per month for several months would be needed for the Fed to feel sufficiently comfortable with inflation dynamics to lower key rates', believes Christopher Dembik, Investment Strategy Advisor at Pictet AM.

US GDP for the fourth quarter will also be monitored on Wednesday, after an initial estimate had put it up by 3.3% at an annual rate, a figure that had beaten most market forecasts.

The bond markets, which had eased late last Friday, are now wiping out all their gains, with the 10-year US T-Bond up 25 basis points at 4.280%, while its European equivalent, the German Bund, is trading at around 2.43%.

The dollar is down -0.3% on average against the euro, which is trading at $1.08.
Brent gained 0.7% to $82.1 a barrel, while gold gave up 0.5% to $2027 an ounce.

In French company news, Saint-Gobain announced that it had reached a definitive agreement to acquire CSR Limited at a price of A$9 per share, representing an enterprise value of A$4.5 billion (around €2.7 billion).

Arkema reports that it has signed long-term renewable energy supply contracts for its sites in Calvert City (Kentucky), Beaumont (Texas), Chatham (Virginia) and West Chester (Pennsylvania), as well as for all Bostik sites in the United States.

Stellantis announced on Monday that it had signed a framework agreement with the car rental group Ayvens, under which it plans to purchase up to 500.000 vehicles in Europe by 2026.

Vivendi subsidiary Canal+ has increased its stake in Viu, a leading streaming service present in Asia, the Middle East and South Africa, to 30%, in accordance with the terms of the transaction announced on June 21, 2023.

Finally, Orange announces the signature of a ground-breaking agreement between Orange Business and Cisco to accelerate the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and support their Net Zero Carbon objectives.

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