The Paris Bourse is set to open higher on Friday, as it awaits the kick-off of the US earnings season, which begins today amid a complicated start to the year.

At around 8.15am, the future contract on the CAC 40 index - for delivery at the end of January - was up 64 points at 7,456 points, suggesting a green opening.

However, investors should refrain from taking too many risks in view of the current geopolitical turmoil, and as the quarterly earnings season is due to kick off later today.

While yesterday's higher-than-expected inflation figures in the United States failed to elicit much reaction, the markets will be relying on corporate earnings to try and get back on track.

Since January 1, the CAC 40 index has posted a decline of over 2%. The start of the 2024 financial year has not been much brighter on Wall Street, where the Nasdaq is down 0.3% so far this year.

US banking groups JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Citigroup will be the first components of the S&P 500 index to publish their quarterly results, at lunchtime.

Overall, S&P corporate earnings should have risen by 1.3% year-on-year in the fourth quarter, according to estimates collected by FactSet.

In financial services, earnings are expected to be down 21% over the last three months of the year, due in particular to the recent halt in the rise in interest rates.

The results to be released over the next few weeks will be used to determine whether forecasts for 2024 should be revised, and if so, whether the valuations of listed companies should be reviewed.

"We probably need to pause for a moment, to take stock of the valuations reached recently", says Florian Ielpo, analyst at Lombard Odier Investment Managers.

Our risk appetite indicator currently points to a period of declining appetite for risk-taking", he adds.

After its recent record highs, the S&P 500 index is trading at 19.2 times expected earnings, compared with a ten-year average of 17.6, according to FactSet data,

In addition to the first corporate releases, a number of macro-economic indicators are on the agenda this Friday, including industrial producer prices for December in the USA.

On the energy market, oil prices remain on an upward trend, still buoyed by tensions in the Red Sea, as the United States and the United Kingdom carried out overnight strikes against Houthist rebel installations in Yemen.

The price of a barrel of Brent crude from the North Sea thus climbed 2.2% to $79.1, while its American equivalent, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), gained 2.4% to $73.7, which should boost energy-related stocks.

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