The Paris Bourse has set a new annual record (7,315 for the 'PX1') and an all-time high (CAC40 'GR' at 21,400), extending its lead to +12% since January 1.
Even though the CAC had "calmed down" a little after a morning dominated entirely by buyers, French stocks gained nearly 1% to 7,285 points, driven in particular by Carrefour and Kering, which gained +8.5% and +3.5% respectively after the publication of their results.
Wall Street reopened down from -0.6% to -0.7%, but this did not affect the Euro-Stoxx 50, which posted +0.9% at 4,275 (annual record).

On the statistics front, investors were treated to a flurry of figures from the USA since 2.30 pm.
The 1st surprise: US retail sales rose by 3% in January (vs. +2% expected), to $697 billion, according to the Commerce Department (they had recorded an unusual decline of 1.1% in December).

Excluding the automotive sector (vehicles and equipment), US retail sales rose by 2.3%.

By contrast, US industrial production stagnated last month, according to the Federal Reserve, even though economists were generally hoping for a rebound.
In detail, manufacturing output rose by 1% and mining and quarrying by 2%, while utilities output fell by 9.9% as weather conditions weighed on heating demand.
Production was nevertheless 0.8% higher than a year earlier. The industrial capacity utilization rate fell by 0.1 points to 78.3%, 1.3 points below its long-term average (1972-2022).
Activity in the New York region's manufacturing sector contracted again in February, but at a much slower pace than in January, according to the Federal Reserve's monthly "Empire State" survey: it stood at -5.8 this month, compared with -32.9 in January, but this came as a pleasant surprise since economists were forecasting a less significant improvement, to around -18.
Thus, the consensus for the Fed's "final rate" is now mostly expected to be 5.50%, and 5.25% is no longer as consensual as it was two weeks ago.

The spectre of recession seems to be receding, but bond markets continue to show a radical curve inversion, with a 125Pt 'premium' for the '6-month' over the '10-year'.
The '10-year' is up marginally by +1Pt at 3.772% and the '6-month' 5.01 at 5.02%, while the '1-year' remains virtually stable at 4.978% (-1Pt).

Given that 70% of growth depends on household consumption "with the labor market still robust and savings plentiful, it may be premature to bury the American consumer", warn Oddo BHF economists.

This morning, UK inflation came out at 8.8% annualized in January, marking a clear slowdown from December's 9.2%.
Gilts are easing a little (-6pts to 3.46%) after a black run of 6 sessions and +50 basis points recovered.
OATs and Bunds are virtually stable or up slightly by +0.5 basis points.
The Euro abruptly reverses course and falls back -0.6% to $1.0670, its lowest level for 1 week.

In corporate news, Kering (+3.5%) reports a 14% increase in net income, Group share, to €3.6 billion for 2022, and 11% growth in operating income before non-recurring items, to €5.6 billion, representing a margin of 27.5%.

For its part, Carrefour (+7.5%) reported sales of 90.8 billion euros for fiscal 2022, up 8.5% on a comparable basis on the same period a year earlier. Net income (group share) came to 1,212 million euros (+7.6%), representing an adjusted net income (group share) up 14% to 1.63 euros, versus 1.43 euros a year earlier.

Lastly, Française des Jeux (FDJ) reported a 4.7% increase in net income to 308 million euros, as well as a 13.1% increase in recurring EBITDA to 590 million euros, representing a margin of 24%.

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