The Paris stock market ended the day slightly up, gaining 0.23% to 7,948 points, helped by performances from Bouygues (+8%), Alstom (+5.6%) and STMicro (+4%), which offset declines from Eurofins Scientific (-6.6%) and Edenred (-5%).

Traders are now eagerly awaiting Thursday's release of the PCE index of consumer spending (excluding food and energy) in the United States, the Federal Reserve's preferred indicator for gauging inflation.

In the meantime, US household sentiment deteriorated sharply in February (from 110.9 to 106.7 on a monthly basis, versus 114.8 in the 1st estimate), according to the Conference Board's monthly survey published on Tuesday.

For Dana Peterson, the Conference Board's chief economist, this sudden deterioration reflects the persistent uncertainty surrounding the US economy.
The sub-index measuring respondents' judgment of their current situation fell back to 147.2 from 154.9 the previous month, while the sub-index measuring their expectations declined to 79.8 from 81.5 in January.

This morning, durable goods orders fell by 6.1% in January compared with December, following a sequential decline of 0.3% in December 2023, with consensus expecting -5%.

Excluding the usually erratic transportation sector, where orders plunged by 16.2% in January, US durable goods orders fell by just 0.3% last month.

On the bond market, the pause in the stock market ('risk-on') and the day's mediocre figures did not favor a return to Treasuries, with the US ten-year yield hovering around 4.285% (-1Pt).

The euro remained stable against the greenback, at $1.085/euro.

Brent crude was up +0.8%, at $83.2/barrel in London.

In French corporate news, conglomerate Bouygues reported net income (group share) of 1.04 billion euros for 2023, compared with 973 million the previous year, and operating profit from ordinary activities (ROCA) up 19% to 2.41 billion.

Orange and BNP Paribas announce that they have concluded their exclusive negotiations begun in June 2023, with the signing of agreements materializing their collaboration, including a referencing agreement concerning the Orange Bank customer portfolio in France.

Eurofins Scientific lost 6.6% after reporting adjusted net profit of €568 million for the past year, or €2.71 per share, and adjusted EBITDA down 9.9% to €1.36 billion, at the upper end of its target range of €1.32-1.37 billion.

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