Around 10:10 a.m., the flagship CAC 40 index gained 0.58%, or 40.39 points to 7,016.22 points.

On Thursday, it gained 0.74% and exceeded the 7,000 point threshold in the session, a first since February 2022.

In France, the rise in consumer prices amounted to an annual average of 5.2% over the whole of 2022, according to INSEE.

In December, inflation reached 5.9% over one year, against 6.2% in October and November, driven by energy and food prices.

Inflation corrected for these two elements, known as core inflation, remained stable over one year at 5.3%.

In the United States, the benchmark CPI index slowed in December to 6.5% year on year, compared to an increase of 7.1% between November 2021 and November 2022.

Over one month, the trend is even downward, with a 0.1% fall in prices, for the first time since the Covid-19 put the American economy under a bell, almost three years ago.

These figures delighted investors and bolstered their hopes that the US central bank (Fed) will be less severe in its monetary tightening this year.

For the markets, the probability of a Federal Reserve (Fed) rate hike in February of 25 basis points is more than 95%, according to Ipek Ozkardeskaya, analyst at Swissquote Bank.

The New York Stock Exchange ended largely in the green on Thursday.

"Inflation seems to have peaked at 9.1% in June 2022, but it is still more than three times higher than the Fed's 2% target", nuance John Plassard, investment specialist at Mirabaud.

The market seems to be "hoping that inflation will quickly return to 2% without this being accompanied by too marked a slowdown in the economy, allowing the Fed to raise its key rates less, and even to lower them as of this summer", according to Xavier Chapard, from the research and strategy team at La Banque Postale AM.

It is however for him "too early to bet on such an ideal scenario".

"Inflation in services accelerated further, from 6.8% to 7.0%, reaching in December its highest level since the beginning of the 1980s" and "prices are accelerating in housing (to 7.5% ),” he adds.

The managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, estimated on Thursday that the effect of financial tightening on employment "is yet to come", but that central banks "have not finished their work" in the face of to inflation.

She fears global social tensions in 2023, given the expected negative effect of rising rates on the job market.

In Germany, GDP grew by 1.9% in 2022 and remained stable in the fourth quarter.

Various recommendations

The Air France-KLM share jumped 6.31% to 1.51 euros, after raising the recommendation of the broker Davy, according to the Bloomberg agency.

Bouygues for its part lost 2.72% to 30.06 euros, after a note from Morgan Stanley which lowered its recommendation on the title.

© 2023 AFP