The Paris stock market is experiencing a small episode of heaviness, losing -0.4% to 7,540 points, as the market is literally deserted by investors, with less than 550MnE traded after 7 hours of trading.
The CAC40 could just as easily have risen by 0.1% or 0.2%, as did the US indices, which collectively gained 0.15% to post their 14th out of 15 sessions, with the Dow Jones (37,720) and Nasdaq-100 (16,920 points) setting new all-time highs.

The lack of activity typical of the holiday season does not call into question the quality of the 2023 stock market vintage, as the CAC is heading for a rise of around 17% this year (and +20% for the CAC40 'global return', which matches the performance of its twin, the DAX (also +20%).

The Paris market has been taking a break for several days, in skeletal volumes, following a series of record highs a fortnight ago in the wake of the Fed's change of strategy.

Unlike in the US, where the surge of the "Magnificent Seven" - AI-related stocks such as Apple and Microsoft - boosted the trend, the 2023 uptrend benefited almost all European sectors.

With a gain of 30% this year, the European technology sector nevertheless remains the big winner in 2023, ahead of industry (+29%) and agri-food (+26%).

This optimism has, however, been tempered by concerns over the apparent slowdown in growth, which in recent weeks has led many analysts to adopt a more cautious approach for 2024.

In a context marked by the absence of a large proportion of investors, a few figures published this afternoon in the US failed to liven up trading: the Labor Department announced 218.000 new jobless claims in the US for the week ending December 18, up 12,000 on the previous week's revised figure (206,000 vs. 205,000 initially announced).

The four-week moving average - more representative of the underlying trend - came out at 212,000 last week, virtually stable (-250) on the previous week's revised average.

Finally, the number of people receiving regular benefits rose by 14,000 to 1,875,000 in the previous week, the most recent period available for this statistic.

The US goods trade deficit widened to -$90.3 billion last month, from -$89.6 billion in October, as exports (-3.6%) fell more than imports (-2.1%) month-on-month.
The Commerce Department, which publishes these preliminary estimates, also reported that inventories fell by 0.2% in wholesale trade and by 0.1% in retail trade.
Finally, new home sales commitments were unchanged in November, but down -5.2% year-on-year.

Despite the good shape of the equity markets, government bond yields remain on a downward trend, continuing the upward trend seen since the end of October, fuelled by optimism about the future course of monetary policy.

Yields on the German Bund and our OATs remain stable, while those on T-Bonds are down slightly by -+4pts to 3.828%.

On the currency markets, the euro remains stable against the dollar (at $1.110/E) and looks set to test its summer zenith of 1.1250 on July 14.

Note that gold - an inverse reflection of the greenback - is up 0.2% to reach new all-time highs, at around $2,075 per ounce.

In other French company news, Safe reports that its management began a full audit of the Group on December 18, with a view to preparing a draft recovery plan, with the assistance of the court-appointed administrator, for presentation to the Pontoise Commercial Court.

Les Constructeurs du Bois announces the success of its capital increase with preferential subscription rights, for an amount of one million euros, at a unit price of 3.50 euros, resulting in the creation of 285,714 new shares.

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