The star CAC 40 index took 0.50% to 7,167.82 around 10:55 a.m.

The Parisian rating had stagnated (-0.07%) the day before while awaiting with apprehension an intervention from Mr. Powell.

With the official US jobs report showing on Friday that the world's largest economy added significantly more jobs than expected in January, investors feared their hopes of the Fed taking a break from rate hikes were dashed. to then lower them during the year.

"Investor fears after the jobs numbers (Friday) were that Mr. Powell's tone would be significantly more hawkish" but this surprise data "didn't really change Mr. Powell's message," comments Christian Parisot, economist of the broker Aurel BGC.

Mr Powell reiterated on Tuesday that inflation was slowing but that the central bank would be ready to raise rates further if economic activity indicators were stronger than expected.

He also defended, again, the need, according to him, to maintain Fed Funds rates at a high level until the end of the year, because inflation should not approach the target of 2% before 2024.

TotalEnergies getting better and better

TotalEnergies posted the largest profit in its history, of 20.5 billion dollars (19 billion euros) in 2022, thanks to the surge in gas and oil prices in the wake of the war in Ukraine.

The action suffered the largest drop (-3.01% to 55.81 euros around 10:35 a.m.) in the CAC 40 index while RBC Capital Markets reported in a note on "results, increase in dividends and prospects in line with their broad lines to market expectations".

Divided opinions on banks

Societe Generale (-0.41% to 27.91 euros) published growth in turnover in 2022 but net profit almost divided by three, to 2.02 billion euros, due to the negative impact of the sale of its Russian subsidiary Rosbank, but which nevertheless exceeded analysts' expectations.

"The only negative point concerns the distribution, slightly below expectations" of the fourth quarter, believe those of Jefferies in a note.

BNP Paribas (+ 1.48% to 63.26 euros) posted an unprecedented net profit last year, at 10.2 billion euros, beating its 2021 record, but explained Tuesday to the trade unions consumer credit that it planned to cut 921 jobs in this activity.

© 2023 AFP