Investors put the previous day's earnings behind them and allowed European stock markets to close in positive territory on Friday. Thus, the CAC 40 increased by 0.39% to 5,495.39 points and the EuroStoxx 50 gained 0.45% to 3,467.63 points. Over the past week, the gains have been more marked, thanks to multiple favourable announcements concerning vaccines against Covid-19. As a result, the CAC recorded a weekly increase of 2.15% and the EuroStoxx 50 of 1.02%

At the end of the afternoon, Friday, Wall Street was trading on an indecisive note: while the Dow Jones fell 0.46%, the Nasdaq Composite plummeted 0.07%.

After a brief moment of hesitation at the very beginning of the session, European stock markets came to their senses and found their way up again. A modest increase, however, given the progression of the Coronavirus pandemic, particularly in the United States. In fact, 200,000 cases were detected there in 24 hours. These figures are leading more and more American states to take new restrictive measures.

At the same time, investors are still worried about the lack of concrete progress on the new American recovery plan. Especially as Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury Secretary, has refused to extend several Fed emergency loan programs, which will expire at the end of the year

On the indicator front, it was a very calm day. The most significant statistic was consumer confidence in the eurozone, which fell slightly less than expected in November (to -17.6 from -17.7 expected), according to a

In terms of values, significant weekly gains were recorded by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (+12.6%), thanks to good news on vaccines and the significant changes underway within its management; Renault (+12.4%), still driven by Nissan's less-than-expected outlook and sectoral rotation; and Alstom (+9.3%), which is making great strides in the acquisition of Bombardier Transport.

On the downside, there were Danone (-3.10%), Carrefour (-3%) and Pernod Ricard (-2.3%).