The Paris Bourse climbed 0.3% this morning to around 8045 points, helped by Saint-Gobain's 5.9% gain on the heels of its quarterly results. Kering also regained some color (+2.7%) after its recent disappointments, while Teleperformance completed the podium of the CAC's best performers with a gain of 2.5%.

While the results season is in full swing on both sides of the Atlantic, the main event of the session will take place at 2.30pm, with the release of the US PCE inflation index, which is likely to influence future monetary policy decisions.

For several months now, this measure of inflation - the Fed's favorite - has been falling only very slowly, and the consensus is still for a 0.3% month-on-month rise in its core version in March.

This statistic is bound to fuel the ongoing debate on the evolution of Federal Reserve rates, with uncertainty surrounding the date of the US central bank's first rate cut currently the dominant factor on the markets, resulting in a rise in bond yields.

The estimated probability of a rate cut in June, which stood at almost 64% a month ago according to CME Group's FedWatch tool, has fallen back to around 12% today.

On the basis of this barometer, expectations of a rate cut in September have fallen back to 44%, on a par with the scenario of a continuation of the 'status quo' (40%).

Pending the release of the ECP, the yield on 10-year US Treasury bonds is easing slightly to 4.68%, after crossing 4.7% yesterday, its highest level since November.

A few months ago, long yields had fallen in anticipation of an earlier monetary pivot", points out Oddo BHF.

Now that the market is pushing back the pivot, long yields have fallen back. The sectors most sensitive to financial conditions are likely to suffer again", adds the private bank,

In French company news, Saint-Gobain last night reported Q1 sales of 11.4 billion euros, down 5.8% on a like-for-like basis, affected by the downturn in new construction in Europe but buoyed by growth in the Americas and Asia-Pacific. Saint-Gobain asserts that it is aiming for a double-digit operating margin in 2024, for the fourth year running.


This morning, Safran reported sales of 6.22 billion euros for the first three months of 2024, up 18.1% on a reported basis and 19.1% organically, with double-digit growth in all its activities.

Airbus reports consolidated adjusted Ebit - a measure of its commercial performance - of 577 million euros for the first three months of the year, compared with 773 million euros a year earlier.
Sales rise 9% year-on-year to 12.8 billion euros on the basis of 142 commercial aircraft deliveries, compared with 127 in the first quarter of 2023.

On Friday, TotalEnergies reported a 22% decline in first-quarter adjusted net income, while citing a "solid" performance in line with its objectives for fiscal 2024. The group posted adjusted net income of $5.1 billion for the first three months of the year, compared with $6.5 billion a year earlier.

Finally, URW reported first-quarter sales of 942.8 million euros, up 3.7% on the previous year. On a like-for-like basis, sales were up +10.5%.

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