The Paris Bourse increased its gains (+0.25% to 7,290), but remained virtually stagnant for the 8th session, with systematic variations of less than 0.5% at the close.

Volatility has been absent for 10 days, but what can we say about volumes this week, with trading worthy of a 3rd-rate stock market: 850MnsE exchanged in 8 hours of trading on Friday.

After a lacklustre day on Thursday, the trend is just as calm today: it's true that the reopening of Wall Street on an indecisive note (with +0.3% on the Dow Jones and -0.3% on the Nasdaq) is not very inspiring.

The US markets only reopened for a short session on this 'Black Friday' (close at 7pm), the day that kicks off the end-of-year trading frenzy.

For the week as a whole, the CAC 40 is currently gaining 0.7 to 0.8%, still firmly anchored above its major resistance of 7,250 points, while the Euro STOXX 50 index (stable) has gained around 0.5% since Monday morning.

The chartists at Kiplink Finance, who refer to a "technically perfect" bullish configuration, believe that the CAC's resistance allows it to envisage a rapid overtaking of the upper 7310/7340 point zone.

At this pace, we could soon be talking about an annual record," predicts the Paris-based brokerage.

The ECB's "minutes", published yesterday, showed that the Governing Council was ready for further rate hikes, even if this option does not correspond to its basic scenario (nobody believes in further monetary tightening).

Moreover, the PMI indices released on Thursday showed that activity in the eurozone contracted for the sixth month in a row in November, further reinforcing the likelihood of a recession, a scenario the ECB is seeking to avoid at all costs.

The Ifo business climate index for Germany edged up to 87.3 in the current month, compared with 86.9 in October, when economists were expecting an average index of 87.5.
Bunds deteriorated marginally by +1.6pts to 2.639%, with OATs adding a mere +1pt.

In the US, the only indicator on today's menu is the PMI index, which seems to have stabilized slightly above the critical 50-point threshold since September (+0.2% to 50.8), but the manufacturing PMI falls into contraction territory at 49.4 (vs. 49.9 expected).

T-Bonds nevertheless rallied by +6.7 points to 4.478%, but this did nothing to help the dollar, which fell by -0.3%: the euro rallied back to 1.0935.

Crude oil prices were hesitant as investors gradually turned their attention to Vienna, where ministers from OPEC and its allies will decide on their production strategy next week.

Brent crude nibbles 0.3% to $81.5 a barrel, while US light crude (WTI, West Texas Intermediate) stagnates at around $77.

Gold is back above $2,000... but trading is calm.

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