Just caught that French markets had a solid day yesterday - CAC 40 pushed up about 0.5% on some surprisingly soft inflation numbers coming through. The consumer price index barely budged at 0.3% year-over-year, which is the weakest reading since late 2020. That's way below what the ECB is targeting, so naturally investors got excited.

Defense stocks were the real winners here, especially Thales which popped nearly 5%. Makes sense given that India-France defense deal that just got announced. You also saw the usual suspects moving - semiconductors like STMicroelectronics up 3%, plus your typical big-cap gainers in energy and industrials. Carrefour took a hit though, down over 5% after flagging acquisition costs hitting their profits.

The soft inflation backdrop is definitely helping sentiment across the board. When you've got price pressures easing like this, it takes some pressure off the central bank, and that tends to lift equities. Worth keeping an eye on how this plays out in the coming weeks.