The Paris Bourse gained almost 0.2% this morning, around 8105 points, with the support of Eurofins Scientific (+2.1%), BNP Paribas (+1.7%) and Edenred (+1.3%).

Although most European markets will be closed on Wednesday for the May 1st holiday, the week's economic agenda looks set to be a busy one, culminating in the Fed's monetary policy meeting, which will deliver its policy decisions on Wednesday evening.

No rate changes are expected on this occasion, but investors will once again be looking to Chairman Jerome Powell, in the hope that he will clear up some of the fog in which they have been operating for the past few weeks.

This comes at a time when the latest US inflation figures have rekindled fears that monetary easing by the Federal Reserve will be slower than expected, and may not materialize until November.

Employment figures, due out on Friday, should testify to the strength of the US economy, with 250,000 jobs expected to be created in April, compared with 303,000 in March.

The week ahead could see the technology-weighted index return to its all-time highs, boosted by results from the sector's mega-cap companies.

The quarterly performances of Amazon on Tuesday evening, followed by Apple on Thursday, will shed light on the current form of the tech giants and their ability to continue dragging equity markets higher.

Among the avalanche of results expected across the Atlantic later this week are those of AMD, 3M, Coca-Cola, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, McDonald's and Qualcomm.

In Europe, the accounts of adidas, ArcelorMittal, Crédit Agricole, Legrand, Mercedez-Benz, Société Générale and Volkswagen will also be closely watched.

In news from French companies, Vivendi reports sales of over 4.27 billion euros for the first three months of 2024, up 86.6%, mainly generated by the consolidation of Lagardère, as well as higher sales at Groupe Canal+ and Havas.

Bolloré reports sales of 5.02 billion euros for the first quarter of 2024, up 63% on a reported basis, mainly due to the full consolidation of Lagardère at Vivendi.

Atos announced on Monday that it had received a non-binding letter of intent from the French government to acquire 100% of its supercomputing, mission-critical systems and cybersecurity businesses.

Société Générale Group announces the signature of a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with French producer JP Energie Environnement (Jpee).

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