(News Bulletin 247) – European stock markets are gaining ground on Thursday (+0.3% in London, +0.6% in Frankfurt), in particular Paris (+1%) where operators often give warm welcomes to the many session business publications.

Among the heavyweights of the Parisian coast, they particularly welcome the performances unveiled by Orange and Pernod Ricard (+5% each), but also Airbus (+3%) and to a lesser extent, Air Liquide (+1%).

Elsewhere in Europe, Shell remained more or less stable in Amsterdam while Nestlé lost 1% in Zurich after their respective annual results, while those of Commerzbank (+8% in Frankfurt) received an enthusiastic welcome.

More broadly, European markets are advancing in the wake of a green close the day before on Wall Street, where solid statistics certainly tended to support the scenario of further rate hikes, but still warded off the specter of recession.

Indeed, retail sales in the United States rebounded by 3% last month, while industrial production managed to stabilize, and the ‘Empire State’ activity index rose to -5.8 in February, compared to -32.9 in January.

“For two weeks, economic indicators have followed one another to show that inflationary pressures are still at work in the world’s largest economy despite the multiple turns of the monetary screw,” Kiplink points out, however.

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