The Paris stock market is clearly gaining ground, in the wake of the luxury goods sector: the CAC40 climbs +1% to 7,685 points (an all-time best close is in sight, above the 7,677 of January 30).
The CAC40 is pulled towards 7,700 by URW (+6.1%), Kering (+5.6%) and Stellantis (+2.8%).
The Euro-Stoxx50 (+0.8%) smashed a new all-time high at 4,718Pts... in the wake of Kering and Hermès (+2.5% and a new all-time high at 2,091E).

Investors are still digesting the flurry of quarterly results at the start of the morning, including releases from ArcelorMittal (+4%), Crédit Agricole, Kering, Publicis and Société Générale.

In the early afternoon, the release of US jobless claims statistics confirmed the hypothesis of a "soft landing" for the US economy, with a further drop in jobless claims: the Labor Department announced -9.000 to 218,000.

The four-week moving average - more representative of the underlying trend - came in at 212,250 for the same week, up 3,750 on the previous week's revised average.

Finally, the number of people receiving regular benefits fell by 23,000 to 1,871,000 for the week ending January 22, the most recent period available for this statistic.

On Wall Street, the US indices seem to be marking time (+0.05% to +0.1%) after the deluge of annual and absolute records of the previous day: the Dow Jones (+0.1%), the S&P and the Nasdaq seem well on their way to a 14th week of gains in a series of 15.

Investors still seem convinced that a "Goldilocks"-type scenario is materializing, which encourages them to continue to turn to the equity markets.

Despite this, caution prevails in the bond markets, where investors are still digesting - 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, US Treasury yields are rising again (+4.5pts), with ten-year paper reaching 4.15%.

In Europe, the 10-year Bund, the zone's benchmark, is approaching 2.335% (+3.7pts), while our OATs are up 4pts at 2.848%.
Italian BTPs are up +8.2pts at 3.9080%, and Gilts are +5pts at 4.055%.

Brent crude is back above $80 a barrel, while the euro is down 0.2% against the greenback, at $1.0750.

In French company news, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) gained more than 6% after reporting a 3.3% increase in adjusted recurring earnings per share (RNRAPA) for 2023 to 9.62 euros, ahead of forecasts, and EBITDA of 2.2 billion euros, up 6.7% on a like-for-like basis.

Crédit Agricole (-5%) announces 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%) 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.

Kering, parent company of Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and Bottega Veneta, is forecasting recurring net income, group share, down 18% to 3.06 billion euros for 2023, with a recurring operating margin of 24.3%, down from 27.5% in 2022.

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