The Paris stock market ended the final session of the week with a spectacular 2.28% rise to 7,634 pts, close to its all-time high of mid-December 2023 (7,653 pts). Over the past week, the CAC40 has gained nearly 3.5%.

The Parisian index has been powerfully driven by the luxury goods sector: LVMH soared by +12.8% following the publication of its results the previous day, dragging Kering and Hermès (+6.6%) in its wake.

As a reminder, Bernard Arnault's group reported last night that it expects to achieve sales of 86.2 billion euros in 2023, with organic growth of 13% compared to 2022 (+9% on a reported basis). LVMH's net income, Group share, amounted to 15.2 billion euros, up 8%.

On the statistics front, the PCE price inflation index in the United States stood at +2.6% annualized in December 2023, a stable rate compared with November, according to the Commerce Department.

Meanwhile, consumer spending in the US rose by 0.7% between November and December, on income growth of just 0.3% month-on-month, according to the Commerce Department.

Growth in consumer spending was therefore slightly higher than the 0.5% anticipated by Jefferies, while US household income was fully in line with the broker's forecast

In the Eurozone, French household confidence improved again in January, according to the Insee synthetic indicator, which gained two points to 91, but remains well below its long-term average (100 between January 1987 and December 2023).

On the other hand, according to the monthly GfK survey, German household sentiment deteriorated sharply as February approached, further darkening the picture for the German economy at the start of the year.

The consumer sentiment index, calculated on the basis of a survey of 2,000 people, sank to -29.7 points, compared with -25.4 in January.

On the markets, Brent crude fell by 0.7% to around $81.7 a barrel, while the euro gained 0.2% against the greenback to around $1.086 a barrel. Bitcoin, for its part, is celebrating with a 4.8% rise to around $41,885.

On the bond front, the 10-year T-Bond (+2Pts) is trading at around 4.15%, while its German equivalent of the same maturity is also up by +2Pts, at around 2.303%.

In company news, Stef posted cumulative sales for 2023 of 4.44 billion euros, up 6.8% (+0.7% on a like-for-like basis and excluding sales of goods for out-of-home catering).

Rémy Cointreau (+15.1%) announces sales of 956.6 million euros for the first nine months of its 2023-24 financial year, down 26.7% on a reported basis and 22.7% organically (or +16.7% on the first nine months of 2019-20).

Alstom announces that it has reached an important milestone in its operations in Hungary, with the completion, at the end of 2023, of a project to modernize 59 MÁV-START Flirt electric trains.

Safran reports that Akasa Air and CFM International (a 50/50 joint venture betweenSafranAircraft Engines and GE) have announced the signing of a contract for the purchase of more than 300 LEAP-1B engines to power a fleet of 150 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, the order for which was announced last week.

Finally, in line with its year-end announcements, Casino announces the completion of the sale of its 34.05% direct stake in Exito, as part of the takeover bids launched in the United States and Colombia by the Calleja group.

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