The Paris stock exchange was stable on Thursday morning, before the meeting of the European Central Bank and the press conference of its president. Shares in France have been seen as a sign of the effectiveness of restrictive monetary policy. The main headline for European markets will be the European Central Bank (ECB) meeting and the press conference of its president Christine Lagarde in the middle of the day. Some Central Bankers, including at last week’s Davos Forum, have said it is unlikely to see a loosening of monetary policy of the summer.
The session will also be punctuated by company results and the publication of the first estimate of the US GDP growth. Getlink (+0.93%), Maisons du Monde (+0.56%) and Solutions 30 (+1.48%) have also posted their results and satisfied the markets. The statistics expected on Thursday should “mainly show strong US growth” in the last quarter of 2023, with “strong consumption thanks to dynamic end-of-year purchases”, presages Christian Parisot, for the broker Aurel BGC. “The US economy is resisting the tightening of monetary policy,” he concludes. STMicroelectronics reported a net profit in 2023 of $4.2 billion, up 6.3%, driven by strong demand for chips in the automotive sector. Its prospects for growth in 2024, however, disappointed investors and are “worse than feared” for Oddo BHF analysts. Publicis, the French advertising giant, plans to invest 300 million euros over three years in its artificial intelligence (AI) strategy, in order to put this technology “at the heart” of its operations. It announced an organic growth of 6.3% in 2023, “above the target range of +5.5% to +6%”, already raised by Publicis in October.
