So France's equity market just keeps grinding higher - CAC 40 jumped another 0.5% today, sitting around 8,405 points. Been watching the defense sector especially since there's this India-France deal happening around military ties, which has traders pretty interested. Thales is the big winner here, up nearly 5%, and you've got semiconductor and industrial plays like STMicroelectronics, ArcelorMittal also posting solid gains.

The real driver though is inflation data coming in softer than expected. Consumer prices barely moved - just 0.3% year-over-year in January, which was the weakest reading in five years. Even core inflation eased to 0.7%, down from 1.1% the month before. This kind of soft economic backdrop is actually good news for equities right now because it keeps pressure off the central bank to keep rates aggressive.

Not everything's up though. Carrefour got hit hard, down over 5% after profit margins squeezed from acquisition costs. Pernod Ricard and EssilorLuxottica also struggling, off 4%+ each. But overall the market's treating this inflation cooldown as a positive signal. Earnings season is still rolling through, so there's more data to digest, but the momentum feels decent for now.