After a dazzling start to the new year, the Paris Bourse is likely to pause on Thursday morning, with investors reluctant to continue buying ahead of the deluge of indicators expected at the end of the week.

At around 8:15 a.m., the 'future' contract on the CAC 40 index - January delivery - was down 23 points at 6758 points, heralding a modest consolidation at the opening.

The Paris market had ended Wednesday's session with gains of 2.3%, at 6776 points, marking a third consecutive session of gains and confirming its strong start to the year with +4.4% since Monday.

Positive sentiment was fuelled by a series of statistics deemed rather reassuring, showing both resilience in economic activity and a decline in inflation.

While the first week of trading generally sets the trend for equity markets, Wall Street seems to be searching for a trend at the start of the year.

In New York, equity markets seem to be struggling to get off the ground despite the euphoria in Europe, although they did manage a slight rebound on Wednesday.

After posting particularly mediocre results on Tuesday, for their first session of the year, the Dow Jones advanced by 0.4% yesterday and the Nasdaq Composite recovered 0.7%.

Published in the afternoon, the 'minutes' of the Fed's latest meeting confirmed, unsurprisingly, the firmness with which the institution is determined to demonstrate in its fight against inflation.

All eyes will now turn to the latest inflation figures for Europe, which now appear to be close to their peak, if they have not already been reached.

While waiting for consumer prices, which will be released tomorrow, investors will be following the evolution of producer prices in the eurozone late today morning, which should confirm their recent slowing trend.

Although the same cannot be said for gas and electricity, fuel prices at the pump in Europe have almost returned to their pre-war levels in Ukraine.

In addition to the indicators expected on the Old Continent, Thursday will also be marked by a series of macroeconomic publications in the United States.

The day's agenda includes unemployment claims, which have shown a timid recovery since the autumn, perhaps constituting an initial sign of weakness in the labor market.

Investors will have even more indicators to get their teeth into tomorrow, with inflation figures for the euro zone and the closely-watched US job creation figures.

On the energy market, oil prices are back on the rise ahead of this afternoon's release of US crude inventories, with a barrel of WTI up 1% at $73.6.

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