On Monday, the markets will have their eyes glued to its rise.
Will the CAC 40 cross the symbolic threshold of 8000 points?
At its close on Friday, the flagship index of the Paris Stock Exchange stood at 7966.68 points (+0.7%), its historic high.
On the same day, the CAC 40 even set an absolute record at 7976.40 points.
Among the French indices which carried this result at the end of the week, it was that of Air Liquide which experienced the greatest variation, at 2.20% over one day and 10.74% over five days.
It is then followed by that of CapGemini with an increase of 1.99% on Friday and 3.20% over five days.
With all the companies that make it up, the CAC 40 continues to climb, at 5.6% since January 1.
If the results of French companies are worth highlighting, they are unfortunately not the only ones to lift the CAC 40. Across the Atlantic, the American indices are also taking that of Paris upwards.
On Wall Street, the S&P index also broke a new record and exceeded the 5,100 point mark for the first time.
The Dow Jones is near 39,300 points.
Also read These investments which will do better than the Livret A in 2024... and those which will do less well
Key rate cuts that reassure investors
To explain the surge in the American and French indices, one player particularly stands out: Nvidia.
The semiconductor specialist published stratospheric results this week with turnover that doubled in one year and net profits multiplied by seven. Thanks to the surge in artificial intelligence, the company saw its stock gain more by 16% on Thursday, then an additional 4.9% on Friday in early Wall Street trading.
Nvidia even added as much as $230 billion to its market capitalization, bringing its valuation to over $2 trillion.
Almost unknown before, the group is now firmly anchored in third place in the world, behind the behemoths Apple and Microsoft.
For Raphaël Thuin, director of capital market strategies at Tikehau Capital, there is a market environment for equities which is very buoyant and which revolves around
“three factors”
.
“First, the resilience of economies and corporate profits, the second reason is disinflation, although it is longer than expected and the third factor is the change in monetary policy of central banks
,” explains the strategist.
“In recent months, the American and European central banks have raised their key rates to particularly high levels to slow the economy. The markets are evolving with the certainty that several key rate cuts will arrive in 2024 and that this cycle will be favorable to risky assets such as stocks
,” concludes Raphaël Thuin.