Buyers seem intent on regaining control with 35 minutes to go: the CAC40 is back above 7,075, but it will be hard to regain the 7,100 level tested at the end of the 1st hour.

Paris progressed, but in skeletal volumes (just 1.05 billion euros traded in 8 hours), following the trajectory of Wall Street, which tried to erase its slight initial decline: stability for the Dow Jones, -0.2% to -0.3% on the S&P500 and Nasdaq... and -0.5% on the Russell-2000 (which fell back below 1,700, to 1,695).

US indices barely reacted to Moody's decision to downgrade the US credit rating to 'Aaa' with negative outlook (the next downgrade would move the rating to 'AA').
No further emotion on bonds, with T-Bonds downgraded by +4pts to 4.6670%.

Nor did Moody's decision affect FOREX, with the dollar remaining perfectly stable against the euro at 1.0687... and the $-Index even gaining 0.05% to 105.85.

In Europe, bonds are at a standstill, with +1 and +2 basis points on OATs and Bunds at 3.303 and 2.728% respectively... and perfect stability on Italian BTPs at 4.5700%.
There were no 'stats' this Monday to liven up trading, so we're experiencing a 'transitional' session... with no initiatives and no technical signals.

Chartist analysts reckon that if the Paris index were to regain its monthly high of 7110 points, its bullish sequence could take it towards 7140 and then 7180 points.

The week gets off to a slow start, but promises to be rich in statistics, with the latest inflation figures in the USA, as well as retail sales and new data on the housing sector across the Atlantic.

These indicators should confirm that a slowdown in the global economy is indeed underway, but also that inflation is easing only very gradually.

If these statistics turn out to be worse than expected, the resilience of the world's stock markets could be hard to justify.

A number of important statistics are also expected in Europe, including October consumer prices, the second estimate of third-quarter GDP and the ZEW index of German investor sentiment.

These data could lead to renewed volatility in the bond compartment, which has already been subject to major roller-coaster movements of late.

The past week ended with divergent developments on both sides of the Atlantic, with a decline in euro-denominated debt and a small technical upswing in T-Bonds, despite Thursday's air pocket caused by the semi-failure of a US Treasury issue.

Volatility on the long end of the yield curve remains very high, with curves still inverted despite the recent movement, which leads us to maintain a preference for the short end of the curve", stresses François Rimeu, senior strategist at La Française AM.

From this analyst's point of view, equity markets do not yet seem to reflect the restrictive bias currently being maintained by central banks' monetary policies.

'For the first time in 15 years, the normalization of interest rates and more resilient inflation than expected have made investing in bonds more attractive than in equities', points out Mauro Ratto, co-founder and co-investment director at Plenisfer.

Although the earnings season is now drawing to a close, a number of leading groups, including Vodafone, Infineon, Siemens and Alstom, are set to unveil their performances over the coming days.

In other French news, TotalEnergies announced that it had signed an agreement with TexGen, a US company, to acquire three gas-fired power plants representing 1.5 GW of electrical generation capacity in Texas for $635 million.

Saint-Gobain announced that it had reached a definitive agreement to acquire Izomaks Industries, a leading player in waterproofing products (floors, roofs) in Saudi Arabia, a transaction for which the financial terms were not specified.

On Monday, Orpea announced the launch of a capital increase of around 3.9 billion euros, as well as its intention to appoint a new board of directors to formalize the entry of the new investor group into its capital.

Finally, Solutions30 (+12%, broad leader of the SBF120) announces that it has signed an agreement with GlasfaserPlus for the rollout of an FTTH network in Germany, starting with Saarland and Bavaria.


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