The Paris Stock Exchange is expected to open cautiously higher on Wednesday, with investors confident that the US consumer price index due on Thursday will signal a further slowdown in inflation in December.
The futures contract for the CAC 40 star index gained 0.18% about forty minutes before the session opened.
The Parisian market closed 0.55% down on Tuesday following profit-taking after a successful start to the year.
“European indices should open higher this morning on the back of the New York shutdown ahead of US inflation data for December which could show a new slowdown, the 6th in a row,” said John Plassard, investment specialist at Mirabaud.
“Reopening China is obviously the icing on the cake,” he adds.
The world’s second-largest economy on Sunday lifted the quarantine requirement for travelers from abroad and thus ended nearly three years of isolation to fight the coronavirus.
Investors believe that this reopening should have a strong positive impact on growth, even if this new momentum in activity could worsen inflation.
Market participants in France may also be clinging to good news, with the Banque de France indicating on Wednesday that the French economy has continued to hold up and is expected to stabilize in January, following slight growth in late 2022.
The New York Stocks ended an undecided session higher on Tuesday, with investors looking forward to December’s US consumer price index (CPI), which is due on Thursday.
Analysts expect prices to stagnate for a month and slow for a year, which would allay fears of further monetary tightening by the US Central Bank (Fed).
US Federal Reserve Chief Jerome Powell refrained from commenting on the monetary policy outlook in a speech in Stockholm on Tuesday on central bank independence. He simply acknowledged that “the restoration of price stability (…) may require measures that are not popular in the short term” by raising interest rates “to slow down the economy”.
Values to follow
LVMH: Delphine Arnault, daughter of Bernard Arnault, has been named CEO of Christian Dior Couture while Pietro Beccari, who held this position, will take the helm of the house of Louis Vuitton, the world’s leading luxury brand, announced the ‘Wednesday Luxury clothing.
Airbus: the European aeronautical group delivered 661 aircraft in 2022, far from the 720 initially planned, due to supplier ramp-up difficulties, and recorded 820 net orders in the last year.
Thales: The defense and technology group said on Tuesday it is not interested in taking a stake in Evidian, the company that Atos will create to specifically house its cybersecurity businesses.
Vinci: the construction group has been awarded, through its subsidiary Cobra IS, a new contract in offshore wind, for a colossal amount of over 4 billion euros, to design, build and install two offshore energy conversion platforms in the Sea north, off Germany.
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