The Paris stock market ended the final session of the week with a gain of 0.69%, at 7,023 points, giving it a weekly gain of 2.4%.

Since the start of the year, the Paris index has risen by 8.5%, marking the best first fortnight for the CAC in 44 years - the best ever for all European indices, in fact.

After an initial decline of -0.5% on average, US indices rebounded slightly, notably with the publication of the University of Michigan's consumer confidence index: this rose from 59.7 in December to 64.6 in January, compared with a previous estimate and consensus of 60.5.

The Nasdaq and S&500 lost 0.2%, while the Dow Jones gained 0.2%.

Still on the subject of statistics, US import prices rose by 0.4% last month, following a 0.7% fall in November, while export prices fell by 2.6% in December, after a 0.4% decline the previous month.

According to the Labor Department, over the last 12 months, US import prices rose by 3.5% (+1.9% excluding petroleum products), while export prices rose by 5% (+4.4% excluding agricultural products) in December 2022.

In Germany, according to initial Destatis calculations, price-adjusted German GDP for 2022 rose by 0.1% in Q4 and by 1.9% compared with 2021 (thanks to the 'acquis de croissance' at the start of the year).

After adjusting for calendar effects, economic growth was even 2%.

In 2022, Germany's general economic situation was affected by the consequences of the war in Ukraine and extremely high energy price rises," explains Ruth Brand, President of the Federal Statistical Office.

There were also severe material shortages and delivery bottlenecks, a massive rise in prices, e.g. for food, skilled labor shortages and the continuing but waning Covid-19 pandemic', she continues.

The stagnation of German GDP in the fourth quarter shows that high inflation has not spared the German economy', reacts Commerzbank, for whom 'a mild recession with a 0.5% drop in real GDP remains likely' in 2023.

In Europe, industrial production rebounded by 1% in the eurozone in November, a much stronger rise than expected, show figures published Friday by Eurostat.
By way of comparison, economists on average were forecasting a limited rise of 0.5%, following a 1.9% decline in October.

In detail, production of capital goods rose by 1%, intermediate goods by 0.8% and consumer durables by 0.4%, while energy production fell by 0.9%.

At state level, the highest monthly rises were recorded in countries with little or no industry, such as Ireland (+6.4%), Luxembourg (+5%) and Malta (+4.6%); the biggest falls were in Estonia (-3.7%) and Croatia (-1.9%).

Compared with November 2021, industrial activity in the region rose by 2%.

Investor interest will now turn to the corporate earnings season, which kicked off today with US banking groups.

Citigroup reported Q4 earnings down -21% to $2.51 billion, due to higher bad debt provisions.
The giant BlackRock reported Q4 profits down -23% (to $1.26 billion) and sales down 15% to $4.34 billion, but slightly ahead of expectations.

On the interest-rate front, the bond markets are digesting the previous day's rise, with OATs improving by the margin to 2.612% from 2.622%, Bunds by 2.2pts to 2.145% and US T-Bonds down 1pt to 3.454%.

The next few sessions are likely to prove volatile, as it is not unusual for markets to hesitate until they can get an idea of the quality of earnings and their outlook.

In company news, OVHcloud reports a very good start to the year, with sales of 216 million euros for the first quarter of its 2023 financial year, up 15.4% on the same period last year.

TotalEnergies announces the start-up of the Deutsche Ostsee LNG import terminal in Lubmin, on Germany's Baltic Sea coast, enabling the French company to become one of Germany's leading LNG suppliers.

Air France-KLM jumped nearly 6% to top the SBF120, buoyed by a recommendation upgrade from 'neutral' to 'buy' by UBS, with a price target raised from 1.75 to 2 euros for the Franco-Dutch airline.

EDF and Respect Energy, a European renewable energy operator and trader based in Poland, have announced the signature of a cooperation agreement for the development of nuclear projects based on SMR NUWARD technology at specific sites in Poland.

Engin, Société Générale and Pegasus Airlines, a Turkish low-cost airline, announce that they have concluded the first-ever aircraft-backed sustainability loan for export credit agency-guaranteed financing.


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