The Paris stock market climbed to 8,200 points in the final seconds of trading, ending the day up 0.65% at 8,201 points, helped in particular by TotalEnergies (+2.6%) and Airbus (+1.8%).

Volumes remained limited, however, with barely 2.8 billion euros traded since the opening.

On the statistics front, the markets learned that both housing starts and building permits in the United States were back on the rise in February, according to statistics from the Commerce Department.

Housing starts rebounded by 10.3% last month to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 1,521,000, a much stronger recovery than expected.

The number of building permits issued in February rose by 1.9% to an annualized rate of 1,518,000, again exceeding financial market expectations.

Economists were expecting a rebound in both statistics in February, after January's unfavorable weather had weighed heavily on the residential construction sector.

Investors are now hoping that the US Federal Reserve will adopt a reassuring tone at the end of its two-day meeting, which starts today.

Some observers fear, however, that the US central bank is preparing the ground for only two rate cuts this year, whereas it had previously expected three.

In view of the healthy state of the US economy, the money markets now assess a rate cut in June with a probability of only 50.7%, according to the FedWatch barometer.

In the end, a first rate cut may not take place until the third quarter, a far cry from the initial projections of investors who, at the start of the year, were hoping for a reduction in the cost of money as early as March.

Alexandre Baradez, Head of Market Analysis at IG France, warns: "And it is perhaps this situation that could push equity markets to consolidate a little.

In Europe, the ZEW business climate index for Germany rose for the 8th month in a row: the indicator gained 11.8 points between February and March 2023 to stand at 31.7 points, its highest level for 12 months.

The economic situation in Germany is fragile, so it will be interesting to see whether things have changed in March before the publication of the PMI indices scheduled for Thursday", explains Danske Bank.

On the bond front, Bunds are easing 2.438%, while our OATs are erasing -1.5Pt to 2.8750%.
US T-Bonds are easing -3.2Pts to 4.308%, erasing the previous day's losses.

On the FOREX, the Dollar is still clawing back a few fractions (+0.2% against the Euro, which is falling back to $1.0850).
Oil continues its rally and is now testing $87.8 in London (Brent) and $83 on the NYMEX (WTI).

In French company news, 'after having carefully studied all aspects of a possible acquisition of Atos' BDS (Big Data and Security) business, Airbus has decided not to pursue discussions with Atos on this potential transaction', says the group.

Atos reports that Eviden, its leading business line in advanced computing, has signed a new contract with the Danish Center for Innovation in AI, owned by the Novo Nordisk Foundation and the Danish Export and Investment Fund.

Thales Alenia Space has signed a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) to supply a global solution for the LEO-PNT (Low Earth Orbit Positioning Navigation and Timing) orbital demonstrator.

Finally, Airbus reports that it has won a contract from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) (Pasadena, California) to design and build the GRACE-C twin probe.

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