The Paris stock market lost nearly 0.5% this morning, to 7930 points, marking a pause after a week punctuated by records, penalized by Carrefour (-2.3%) and Alstom (-1.9%).

By gaining just over 2.5% last week, the CAC set new all-time highs, including a record peak at 7976.4 points.

Since the start of the year, the Paris market is already up 5.6%, a move so strong that some investors may well be tempted to start taking some profits.

On Wall Street, the major US indices also set new records, largely due to the strong performance of technology heavyweights, with Nvidia at the forefront.

Just because the markets are trading at all-time highs doesn't necessarily mean that investors will start to tire," moderates Craig Fehr, strategist at Edward Jones.

"Still, it seems reasonable to think that the markets will catch their breath in the short term, given the speed and scale of the recent upward rally," he warns.

In particular, caution may be called for ahead of the release of US inflation figures, which could influence the Federal Reserve's next monetary policy decisions.

Thursday will see the release of monthly figures for the PCE consumer price index in the USA, one of the statistics most closely watched by the Fed and expected to rise by 0.4% month-on-month in January.

"Ideally, we would need a PCE core index of around 0.2% per month for several months for the Fed to feel sufficiently comfortable with the inflation dynamic to lower key rates", believes Christopher Dembik, investment strategy advisor at Pictet AM.
US GDP for the fourth quarter will also be monitored on Wednesday, after a first estimate showed an increase of 3.3% year-on-year, a figure that beat most market forecasts.

In French company news, Saint-Gobain announces that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire CSR Limited at a price of nine Australian dollars per share, representing an enterprise value of 4.5 billion Australian dollars (around 2.7 billion euros).

Arkema reports that it has signed long-term renewable energy supply contracts for its sites in Calvert City (Kentucky), Beaumont (Texas), Chatham (Virginia) and West Chester (Pennsylvania), as well as for all Bostik sites in the United States.

Stellantis announced on Monday that it had signed a framework agreement with the car rental group Ayvens, under which it plans to purchase up to 500.000 vehicles in Europe by 2026.

The Canal+ group, a subsidiary of Vivendi, announces that it has increased its stake in Viu, a leading streaming service present in Asia, the Middle East and South Africa, to 30%, in accordance with the terms of the transaction announced on June 21, 2023.

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