The Paris stock market (-1.8%) looks set to hold on to the 7,000Pts mark (after a foray to the greens at 6,970), weighed down by the fall in banking stocks, with Société Générale down by nearly -5.5%, BNP Paribas by -4% and Credit Agricole by -3%, in the wake of Deutsche Bank.
However, the week will end with a gain of +0.7% to +0.8% in Paris, despite this new bout of banking stress.

The German giant plummets -10% to 8.4E (near a low of 7.95E), which is suffering massive sell-offs (80 million shares in 6 hours, i.e. 10 trading sessions on average), while CDSs (debt insurance) 'pricent' a 33% risk of imminent bankruptcy!

The Euro-Stoxx50 also fell by -2% to 4,120, as did Frankfurt, epicenter of the new banking stress test which will involve the ECB (after the FED on Friday March 10, the SNB on Friday March 17).
On Wall Street, indices reopened moderately lower and the situation is hardly changing, with modest scores of -0.3% to -0.5% (Nasdaq), but the regional banking sector (50% of credit distributed in the USA) remains under pressure for want of a global solution that would rule out any systemic risk (which Wall Street is calling for).

But it's not just Deutsche Bank that's on the menu this March 24: there were also figures from the US that don't point in the direction of rate easing by the FED.
Indeed, the US private sector saw its growth accelerate markedly in March, according to S&P Global, whose composite PMI index stood at 53.3 in flash estimation, a 10-month high, after having climbed to 50.1 the previous month.
Production grew at a solid pace as demand conditions improved and new orders returned to growth", explains S&P Global, which also points to an acceleration in selling price inflation.

On the downside, US durable goods orders fell by 1% last month, following a 5% drop in January (revised from an initial estimate of -4.5%).
The Commerce Department reports that while transportation equipment orders contracted by 2.8% month-on-month, US durable goods orders managed to remain more or less stable in February.

This morning, investors took note of the flash estimate for the S&P Global composite PMI index of overall activity in the eurozone. The index recovered for a fifth consecutive month in March, reaching a ten-month high of 54.1, compared with 52.0 in February.
Growth was again driven by the performance of the services sector, whose activity recorded its strongest expansion since May 2022. In the manufacturing sector, on the other hand, activity levels stagnated in March.
Fixed-income markets are benefiting from a risk-off climate, with our OATs shedding -5pts to 2.6650% and Bunds -4.5pts to 2.1450%.

Across the Atlantic, T-Bonds are easing -2.5pts to 3.3800%... but this did not prevent the Dollar from recovering 0.8% to 1.0740 (it serves as a refuge in case of stress) and Gold from passing the symbolic $2,000 per ounce mark again (it is also a relevant refuge in the face of a climate of monetary 'all-in' by central banks).


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