CAC 40: a pause after eight consecutive sessions of gains

(CercleFinance.com) - The Paris Bourse is set to take a break on Monday, as investors seem reluctant to continue buying after eight consecutive sessions of gains, especially as the market prepares for a week less animated than previous ones.


At around 8:15 a.m., the future contract on the CAC 40 index - March delivery - was down 13 points at 7973 points, suggesting a slight consolidation at the opening.

After gaining a little more than 2.5% last week, the CAC set new all-time highs, peaking at 7976.4 points, not far from the 7800-point threshold never reached since the index's creation.

Since the start of the year, the Paris market is already up 5.6%, a move so strong that some investors may well be tempted to start taking some profits.

On Wall Street, the major US indices also set new records, largely due to the strong performance of technology heavyweights, with Nvidia at the forefront.

Just because the markets are trading at all-time highs doesn't necessarily mean that investors will start to tire," moderates Craig Fehr, strategist at Edward Jones.

"Still, it seems reasonable to think that the markets will catch their breath in the short term, given the speed and scale of the recent upward rally," he warns.

In particular, caution may be called for in the run-up to the publication of US inflation figures, which could influence the Federal Reserve's next monetary policy decisions.

On Thursday, the monthly figures for the PCE consumer price index in the USA will be published, one of the Fed's most closely watched statistics, expected to rise by 0.4% month-on-month in January.

Christopher Dembik, Investment Strategy Advisor at Pictet AM, comments: "This is still a little high to hope for a return to the 2% inflation target.

"Ideally, we would need a core PCE index of around 0.2% per month for several months for the Fed to feel comfortable enough with the inflation dynamic to lower key rates", he adds.

US fourth-quarter GDP will also be monitored on Wednesday, following an initial estimate that saw it rise by 3.3% at annual rates, a figure that beat most market forecasts.

While the earnings season is now drawing to a close, a number of releases will be watched over the coming days, including those from Salesforce and Dell in the US, and AB InBev, Haleon, Holcim, Puma and UMG in Europe.

Inflation will also be a key theme in Europe, with preliminary consumer price figures for February in Germany and France due on Thursday, followed by those for the eurozone on Friday.

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