The Paris stock exchange ended the day with a gain of 0.71%, at 7,665 points, well helped by the performance of the luxury goods sector (Kering +4.9%, LVMH +2.6% and Hermès +1.8%), not forgetting URW (+4.7%) and STMicro (+3.5%).

This morning, investors were treated to an avalanche of quarterly results (see below), including those of URW, Crédit Agricole, Société Générale, ArcelorMittal and Kering.

A few hours later, the publication of US jobless claims statistics confirmed the hypothesis of a "soft landing" for the US economy, with the Labor Department announcing -9,000 claimants, down to 218,000.

Nevertheless, caution prevailed in the bond compartment, where investors continued to digest - with some difficulty - the latest statements by Jerome Powell and Neel Kashkari.

The Fed's two top dignitaries have pushed back the horizon for rate easing, with perhaps no more than two to three rate cuts envisaged in 2024, due to growth that remains singularly robust.

As a result, yields on US Treasury bonds are rising again (+6.6 pts), with ten-year paper reaching 4.16%.

In Europe, the 10-year Bund, the zone's benchmark, is over 2.35% (+11 pts).

Note that Brent crude oil is over $81 a barrel (+2.1%), while the euro remains stable against the greenback, at $1.076/E.

In the news for French companies, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) is up by more than 4.7% after reporting a 3.3% increase in adjusted recurring earnings per share (RNRAPA) for 2023 to 9.62 euros, ahead of its forecasts, as well as EBITDA of 2.2 billion, up 6.7% on a like-for-like basis.

Crédit Agricole (-5.2%, the CAC's red lantern) has announced that it will raise its 2023 dividend to 1.05 euros per share (+24% year-on-year, excluding 2019 catch-up) for underlying EPS up 6.5% to 1.80 euros over the past year, as well as stable underlying ROTE at 12.6%.

Société Générale reports a 36.6% increase in net income for 2023 to 2.49 billion euros and a 1.7-point improvement in ROTE to 4.2%, despite a 28.2% drop in gross operating income (GOI) to 6.58 billion.

ArcelorMittal (+4.9%) reported Group Ebitda, the indicator most closely followed by the market, of $1.27 billion in the fourth quarter, up from $1.26 billion the previous year and well above the average analyst forecast of $1.2 billion.

Lastly, Kering (+4.9%), parent company of Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and Bottega Veneta, unveils a recurring net income group share down 18% to 3.06 billion euros for 2023, with a recurring operating margin of 24.3%, versus 27.5% in 2022.


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