The Paris Bourse maintained its lead, with the CAC40 closing the session up +0.67% at 7,330 (at around 3pm, the index was close to 7,350), while Wall Street remained close to its opening levels, with the Dow Jones up +0.5% and the S&P500 up +0.2%.

The market is behaving as if some traders are betting that Jerome Powell's much-anticipated remarks at tonight's press conference will be more dove-like than expected and will lean in favor of stabilizing rates, just as the ECB strongly suggested last Thursday.

At the end of two days of discussions, the FOMC, the US central bank's policy committee, is expected to decide to leave interest rates unchanged, clarifying its intentions and the expected path of rates over the coming months.

Another factor likely to influence the trend is the fact that oil prices are experiencing some profit-taking, as the OECD yesterday reported a "lacklustre" outlook for the world economy (revised downwards by -0.2% compared with the initial calculation).

Brent crude oil remains close to $94.6 a barrel, while US light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) is stabilizing at $90.9 after setting new almost one-year highs of almost $92 yesterday.

Crude oil inventories fell again last week (-2.1 million barrels) in the United States, as did those of gasoline and distillates (-0.88 million then -2.9 million respectively), announced the US Energy Information Agency (EIA) on Wednesday.

The refinery capacity utilization rate came in at 91.9%, still close to optimum.

This consolidation brings a halt to the rise in government bond yields, which yesterday took the German ten-year to its highest level since 2008.

The Bund yield is now down -3pts to 2.73%, while the US ten-year has eased to 4.317% and our OATs are also down -3pts to 3.237%.

For the past 10 days, the margin of safety on bonds has been shrinking, to zero this week, and specialists believe that it will take a pleasant surprise for rates to slip, without leading the markets into an episode of stress, with US yields potentially rocketing towards the 4.50% mark.

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