The CAC40 opens the session up 0.5% at 8125pts, following a session that saw the Parisian flagship index gain more than 0.8% to 8087 points, despite a rather disappointing report on US inflation.

As a reminder, inflation accelerated by 0.1 points to +3.2% year-on-year last month, and excluding energy and food products, the underlying rate stood at +3.8%, whereas Jefferies was expecting +3.7%.

Overall, the report confirms that some of the strength seen in January was due to temporary factors", says PIMCO economist Tiffany Wilding, for whom it would not be enough to prevent the Fed from cutting rates mid-year.

The inflation report failed to halt the continued strength of equity markets, fuelled by investor enthusiasm for technology stocks as generative AI takes center stage.

'Investments in this area, particularly in companies such as Meta and Salesforce, have achieved excellent returns in 2023', points out Erling Haugan Kise, fund manager at DNB Asset Management.

On the value front, Vallourec announces that ArcelorMittal has reached an agreement to purchase Apollo's 28.4% voting rights and 27.5% shareholding in its capital, for a total consideration of 955 million euros.

BNP Paribas estimates that '2024 will be above the net distributable income published in 2023', and reports an acceleration and expansion of its operating efficiency measures by around 400 million recurring euros.

Solvay reports underlying net income from continuing operations of 588 million euros for 2023, compared with 740 million previously, but free cash flow (FCF) up 17.3% to 561 million, representing a record FCF conversion rate of 45.4%.

Dassault Systèmes and Rexel announce that their Boards of Directors will propose dividends of €0.23 and €1.20 per share respectively for 2023, in cash, to their AGMs.

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