The Paris Bourse is expected to open little changed on Thursday, as caution continues to prevail ahead of a number of economic indicators and US employment figures.

At around 8:15 a.m., the 'future' contract on the CAC 40 index - April delivery - was trading at 8161.5 points, down just six points, suggesting a moderate decline in early trading.

After a fine start to the year, the Paris market has lost some of its momentum since the end of March, in the absence of any impetus to sustain the upward movement.

While the session ahead looks relatively calm, trading will nevertheless be livened up in the morning by the publication of the latest PMI activity indicators in Europe.

In its preliminary version, the Eurozone's composite PMI came within a hair's breadth (49.9) of breaking out of the contraction zone (below 50 points) in which it has now been operating since June 2023.

But analysts point out that the improvement of recent months is mainly due to a revival of activity in southern European countries, while France and Germany continue to lag behind.

Investors' attention will also begin to turn to the United States, on the eve of the monthly Labor Department report, which could reignite the debate on the need for further Fed rate cuts.

Yesterday's better-than-expected results from ADP's private-sector employment survey cast doubt on this scenario, but the weakness of the ISM manufacturing index seems to argue in favor of monetary easing.

Ahead of the jobs report, investors will be watching the weekly US jobless claims figures at 2.30pm.

Investors will also continue to keep a close eye on the impact of rising oil prices, with a barrel of US light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) now peaking at its highest level since October.

Buy positions on oil (Brent and WTI) are at a five-month high", comment the teams at DeftHedge, a developer of decision-support software for currency and commodity risk management.

"The cause: uncertainty over Russian supplies, which has led to a sharp rise in diesel prices over the past few sessions", point out the platform's analysts.

Gold is following suit, reaching new all-time highs above $2,300 an ounce, with buying interest continuing unabated.

'Even individual investors, who were previously positioned on the sell side, are getting in on the act', stresses DeftHedge. Over the past week, investment funds have strengthened their buying positions", says the risk manager.

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