The Paris Bourse is set to open slightly higher on Monday morning for the first trading session of 2023, with investors buying on the back of the market's worst performance in over a decade last year.

At around 8:15 a.m., the 'future' contract on the CAC 40 index - for delivery at the end of January - was up 40.5 points at 6,511 points, heralding a start to the session in the green.

Over the full year 2022, the Paris market lost 9.5%, the first time this has happened since 2011, while Wall Street suffered its worst annual performance since 2008, with the S&P 500 losing over 19%.

All markets, across all asset classes, had a difficult 2022, due to the shock of the war in Ukraine, the sharp rise in inflation and the severe monetary tightening orchestrated by the world's major central banks.

Investors now want to put the past year behind them, in the hope that 2023 will promise a little brightening, which seems far from certain given current conditions.

The first week of trading usually sets the general trend on equity markets, but stock indices could be looking for a trend at the very start of the year.

Although markets ended 2022 better than they started it, uncertainty remains high, particularly in view of the growing signs of global economic slowdown, and investors remain under fire from a number of obstacles.

All eyes will be on inflation, which now seems close to its peak, if it has not already reached it.

The easing of inflationary pressures could lead the major central banks to slow down or even end their cycle of monetary tightening, which could mean that risk assets could regain some of their appeal.

Trading is likely to remain light, however, as many participants are absent during the New Year week.

In Europe, the morning will be punctuated by the publication of the final PMI activity indices for December, which should serve as a reminder that the eurozone remains highly exposed to the risk of recession in the first half of 2023.

Investors will have more indicators to get their teeth into at the end of the week, with the closely watched US employment figures for December expected on Friday.

After last year's underperformance, stock market valuations have become more attractive, which could represent a buying opportunity, especially in view of a limited and short-lived recession.

A small glimmer of hope: the CAC 40 index has never had two consecutive years of decline since 1991, the only exception being the negative sequence that characterized 2001 (-20.5%) and 2002 (-32.1%).

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