The Paris Bourse looks set to maintain its upward trajectory on Wednesday morning, despite Wall Street's procrastination, as its attempt at a recovery quickly ran out of steam yesterday.

At around 8:15 a.m., the future contract on the CAC index - for delivery at the end of January - advanced by 24.5 points to 6,650.5, heralding an opening in positive territory.

Investors don't seem intent on taking a break after a rather successful start to the year, which has seen two consecutive sessions of gains and a cumulative gain of 2.3%.

After gaining up to 1.5% in the morning, the Paris market gave up some of its gains yesterday, ending the session with a more modest 0.4% gain at 6623 points.

But the New York Stock Exchange opened the year 2023 on a much duller note, in the absence of any catalysts or economic indicators enabling market players to make any cheap buybacks.

The Dow Jones ended Tuesday just below its equilibrium at 33136 points, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped nearly 0.8% to 10387 points.

While valuations may once again appear reasonable, many believe that it is still too early to return aggressively to the equity markets, given the current lack of visibility.

Financial markets suffered in 2022, and the new year promises to be just as eventful

The ISM manufacturing index, which in November fell below the fateful 50-point threshold for the first time since the confines of 2020, is expected to signal a further erosion in activity this afternoon.

The US statistics expected at the start of the year will be decisive in determining where the US economy stands at the start of 2023.

'A moderate slowdown in economic activity and employment should still satisfy the markets, as they will see it as the coming together of a less restrictive monetary policy, without anticipating a recession', explain IG's teams.

A sharp slowdown, on the other hand, could enable a very short-term rebound for the same reasons, but would probably lead to a sharp downturn later on, against the backdrop of a probable future recession", says the broker.

In Europe, the PMI services activity indices for the major European economies will be scrutinized later this morning.

On the interest rate front, bond yields confirmed their easing trend, with French 10-year OATs back at 2.89% and German Bunds at 2.37%.

In the USA, the yield on 10-year Treasuries stabilized at around 3.79%, after declining the previous day.

On the currency markets, the dollar retreated slightly to around 1.0585 against the euro, after starting the year on a particularly vigorous recovery.

In the energy sector, oil prices fell sharply in the wake of gas prices and a slowdown in Chinese industry.

US light crude was still very volatile this morning, dropping a further 0.4% to $76.6, while Brent lost 0.3% to $81.8.

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