After spending the whole day in negative territory, with a late-morning low of 7728 points (around -0.5%), the Paris Bourse slowly reduced its losses in the second half of the session.

By the final gong, all losses had been wiped out and the index ended perfectly balanced at 7768 points (+0.00%), despite sharp declines by Thales (-4.7%), Alstom (-3%) and Legrand (-2.5%).

The SBF120, meanwhile, was marked by spectacular declines among automotive suppliers, with Forvia down 12.6% and Valeo down 6.8%.

Trading was nevertheless limited on European markets, in the absence of US operators celebrating President's Day.

French stocks did not react much to Bruno Le Maire's comments on TF1's '20H' on Sunday.

The French Finance Minister had announced a downward revision of the country's growth forecasts for 2024, from 1.4% to 1% (as did the IMF, but the OECD expects no more than 0.6%, while the consensus of economists is for 0.8%).

As a result, the French government will have to make 'ten billion euros in additional savings' (including 800 ME in budget cuts for 'Ma Prime Rénov' and 1 MdE in cuts to 'development aid').

After the deluge of results, statistics and monetary decisions of recent weeks, the week ahead promises to be calmer than the previous ones... but watch out for the publication of Nvidia's quarterly results on Wednesday: expectations are stratospheric and behind a gain that has already reached +46% this year.

Any disappointment could result in heavy profit-taking, and would impact the semiconductor sector, which has been driving the S&P500 since autumn 2022.

In terms of US figures considered important by Wall Street, we'll have to wait until Thursday to discover the preliminary results of S&P Global's surveys of private-sector purchasing managers (PMI).

The market will also take stock of the US Federal Reserve's monetary policy with the release, on Wednesday evening, of the 'minutes' of the January meeting, which saw the Fed keep rates unchanged.

Expectations of a rate cut in the US have been sharply revised downwards recently in the wake of good figures on growth, employment and inflation.

Whereas at the beginning of the year, the market was expecting rates to fall by 175 to 200 basis points from March onwards, now only 100 basis points are expected, starting in June.

In Europe, it promises to be another relatively busy week, with upcoming announcements from Air Liquide, Carrefour, Nestlé, Mercedes-Benz, AXA, Engie, Deutsche Telekom, Allianz and BASF.

In news from French companies, Stef, the group specializing in cold logistics, reports that its Board of Directors has decided to cancel 150,000 treasury shares, representing 1.15% of the share capital, which were acquired as part of a share buyback program.

Thales announces that its SurfSAT-L solution will provide satellite communication capabilities for the F126 frigates, the largest frigates in the German Navy's fleet, capable of operating at all latitudes.

Air Liquide announces that it is investing more than 50 million euros to build an innovative new production unit in Singapore and to transform its current facilities in Malta, New York, in order to supply ultra-pure nitrogen to GlobalFoundries.

Veolia announces that, via its Hungarian subsidiary, it has signed an agreement with Uniper for the acquisition of a power plant with an installed capacity of around 430 megawatts located in Gönyu, in northwest Hungary.

Rothschild & Co announces the opening of its new office in Riyadh, located in King Abdullah's financial district, as part of its strategic expansion in Saudi Arabia, strengthening its presence in the Middle East.

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