The Paris stock market is back above 7,100, driven by STMicro's +6.5% rise, following the announcement of a 2022 net income almost double that of 2021 (see below).

The 1st estimate of US growth in Q4 came in at 2.9%, right in the middle of the consensus of 2.6% to 3.2% (GDP had climbed by +3.2% in Q3).
US jobless claims fell by a further 6,000 in the week to January 16, to 186,000 from 192,000 (revised from 190,000) the previous week, according to the Labor Department.

The four-week moving average - considered a better indicator of the underlying trend in the labor market - shows a week-on-week decline of 9,250 to 197,500, again approaching 2019 records.

Finally, the number of people regularly receiving benefits rose by 20,000 to 1.675,000 in the week to January 9, the last week available for this statistic.

Bond markets, which were stable this morning, are easing slightly: T-Bonds are +4pts at 3.507%, and comparable spreads are seen on our OATs (2.645%) and Bunds (2.1960%).

With robust US GDP, 'WTI' oil rebounded by 1.3% to $81.4 a barrel, while 'Brent' rallied to $87.5.

The results season, so far disappointing, should also continue to drive the trend, as investors become aware of the impact of the global economic slowdown on corporate accounts.

Tesla reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter results last night, but its shrinking profit margins reflect an increasingly difficult market environment.

Groups such as Visa, LVMH, Mastercard, SAP, Intel, STMicroelectronics and Nokia are also due to unveil their performances today.

In company news, STMicroelectronics reported a net income almost double that of 2021, to $3.96 billion, and an operating margin up from 19% to 27.5% year-on-year. Sales of the Franco-Italian semiconductor manufacturer rose by 26.4% to $16.13 billion.

Getlink unveils sales of almost 1.61 billion euros in 2022, up 107% at constant exchange rates on 2021, 'setting a new all-time high since the group's creation'.

For 2022, SES-imagotag is forecasting sales growth of 46.4% to 619.1 million euros, the highest level of annual sales in the history of the specialist in electronic shelf labelling for the retail sector.

Finally, Air Liquide announced on Thursday that it had signed a "record" number of 52 new contracts for on-site gas production in the industrial merchant sector in 2022. The number of long-term contracts related to on-site installations signed each year by Air Liquide has thus doubled between 2015 and 2022.

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