The Paris Bourse is set to open lower on Friday morning, as it awaits the publication of monthly employment figures in the USA, the culmination of a particularly intense week.

At around 8:15am, the 'future' contract on the CAC 40 index - August delivery - dropped 68.6 points to 7313.5, heralding a start to the session in the red.

At 2.30pm, the US Department of Labor will publish its employment statistics for July, which are expected to confirm the slowdown in the US labor market.

Investors will be on the lookout for any sign of a sharper-than-expected deceleration following the lower-than-expected indicators published in recent days, which have reinforced expectations of a rate cut in September.

Economists are forecasting an average of 170,000 new non-farm jobs after the 206,000 announced for June, with the unemployment rate stable at 4.1%.

Worse-than-expected figures would validate the scenario of monetary easing as early as next month, which traders are now considering with a probability of over 66%, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

But too much deterioration in the labor market could also raise concerns about the health of the U.S. economy, as Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said on Wednesday he was worried about a possible 'hard landing' in growth.

The big question now is whether we're talking about 'normalization' or something more: for the moment, the Fed is sticking to the first hypothesis, but there's a good feeling that things could change", stresses Bastien Drut, Head of Strategy and Economic Research.

The employment statistics will round off a decisive week, marked by Federal Reserve announcements, an avalanche of corporate results and several key economic indicators.

For the time being, the CAC 40 is posting a weekly loss of 2%, which has led it to break through its major support of 7500 points, and then the 7400-point threshold.

According to technical analysts, the 7275-point mark remains a key support for the time being, until the 6950/6775-point levels, which would emerge in the event of a deeper crisis.

As for the results of the US technology giants, Apple last night reported better-than-expected quarterly performance and an encouraging outlook, but only gained 0.5% in electronic trading.

Amazon was more heavily punished, falling 7% in after-market trading following a weaker-than-expected quarterly publication.

The bond market confirmed its good form ahead of US employment data, with the yield on ten-year Treasuries now anchored below 4%, virtually at its lowest level since the start of the year.

Crude oil prices remained buoyed by fears of an escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, enabling a barrel of US light crude (WTI) to advance by 0.8% to $76.9.

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