After trading above 7500 points for a long time, even briefly reaching 7526 points, the Paris Bourse lost some ground towards the end of the day. Nevertheless, the Paris index ended the session on a respectable note, gaining 0.29% to 7,497 points, driven in particular by Sanofi (+2.2%), URW and TotalEnergies (+1.5%).

Recent economic developments, which lend credence to the thesis of a soft landing for growth, seem to have reassured investors.

The generally positive start to the earnings season has also rekindled risk appetite, as has last week's unsurprising rhetoric from the major central banks.

While 80% of S&P 500 companies have so far delivered better-than-expected earnings (according to FactSet), the markets are gearing up for another busy week on the corporate results front, with many heavyweights such as Amazon and Apple reporting.

In Europe, results from Adidas, BMW, bp and Ferrari are expected in the next few days.

On Thursday, the Bank of England (BoE) will also announce its monetary policy decisions.

On the macroeconomic front, investors today took note of the first estimate of inflation in the eurozone for July, as well as economic growth in the region for the second quarter.

Inflation in the eurozone slowed in July due to lower energy prices: the consumer price index (HICP) contracted to 5.3% year-on-year, from +5.5% the previous month, after +6.1% in May and +7% in April (thanks to a 6.1% fall in energy prices).
On a core basis, however, inflation came out at 6.6% year-on-year, after 6.8% in June.

Eurozone GDP is reported to have risen by +0.3% in Q2, despite a symmetrical contraction in Italian GDP.

There was little reaction on the bond front, with yields deteriorating marginally by +1 basis point on OATs and Bunds to 3.038% and 2.467% respectively

In French company news, following their entry into exclusive negotiations announced last April, Worldline and Crédit Agricole announced the signing of a binding agreement outlining their planned partnership in electronic payment services for merchants.

Eurazeo has signed a financing agreement with alternative asset manager Blackstone to support the growth of the Premium group, a savings and retirement products broker in which it is the majority shareholder.

Wendel reports that it has signed an agreement to sell Constantia Flexibles, a world leader in flexible packaging for the FMCG and pharmaceutical markets, to a subsidiary of One Rock Capital Partners.

On the occasion of its half-yearly publication, Legrand announces that it has raised its 2023 targets to aim for sales growth of between +5 and +8%, excluding currency effects and the impact of Russia (compared with +2 and +6% previously).


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