Wall Street is expected to rise slightly on Wednesday, and European stock markets are also in the green at mid-session, amid cautious optimism ahead of monthly US inflation figures and the minutes of the latest Federal Reserve (Fed) meeting.

Futures on New York indices point to a Wall Street opening up 0.25% for the Dow Jones, 0.18% for the Standard & Poor's 500 and 0.04% for the Nasdaq.

In Paris, the CAC 40, which was trading at an all-time high, gained 0.44% to 7,422.98 points at around 10:40 GMT. In Frankfurt, the Dax advanced by 0.31% and in London, the FTSE gained 0.69%.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index gained 0.36%. The Eurozone EuroStoxx 50, which hit its highest level since July 2001 at 4,015.41 points, gained 0.23%. The Stoxx 600 climbed 0.33%.

After the US employment report, all eyes are on the US consumer price data for March due at 12:30 GMT. The Reuters consensus forecasts a slowdown in headline inflation to 5.2% year-on-year, but an acceleration in core CPI to 5.6% year-on-year.

The minutes of the Fed's March 21-22 meeting are scheduled for 18:00 GMT.

In the meantime, money markets are predicting with a 73% probability that the Fed will raise rates by 25 basis points in May, then pause, before lowering them by 40 basis points by the end of the year.

Patrick Harker, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, suggested on Tuesday that the US central bank could soon be finished with the rising cost of credit, with fed funds currently in a range of 4.75%-5.00%.

In the eurozone, where Banque de France Governor François Villeroy de Galhau warned on Tuesday of the risk of inflation stalling above 2%, a speech by Luis de Guindos, Vice-President of the European Central Bank (ECB), scheduled for later in the day, will be particularly closely watched. STOCKS TO WATCH ON WALL STREET

VALUES IN EUROPE Automobiles (+0.91%) and the defensive segments of real estate (+1.15%) and utilities (+0.77%) are fuelling the positive trend.

In Paris, Unibail Rodamco, up 1.81%, was the second-best performer on the CAC 40, behind Vivendi (+2.10%).

In the luxury goods sector, where LVMH (-0.03%) is due to publish its quarterly results after the close, L'Oréal lost 1.04% after Deutsche Bank downgraded its recommendation on the stock from "buy" to "hold".

Scor gained 3.43% after presenting its annual targets under IFRS 17. According to Berenberg analyst Tryfonas Spyrou, these new targets show that Scor shares remain "very cheap", trading at a 46% discount to their new defined value.

Elsewhere in Europe, Swedish truck manufacturer AB Volvo jumped 8.25% on the back of record first-quarter profits.

CHANGES

The dollar retreated slightly (-0.08%) against a basket of benchmark currencies on expectations of US inflation.

This data "could make the difference between a 25 basis point hike or a pause at the next Fed meeting in May", says Matt Simpson, market analyst at City Index.

The euro is trading at $1.0929 (+0.17%) and sterling at $1.2416 (-0.09%).

Bitcoin is losing ground at $30,017.48 (-0.58%), a day after reaching its ten-month peak of $30,438.

RATES

Bond yields, down slightly in morning trading, are now trending upwards: the rate on the ten-year German Bund has risen by around three basis points to 2.328%, and that on US Treasuries of the same maturity is trading at 3.4506% (+2 points).

OIL

A wait-and-see attitude also prevailed on the oil market, where Brent gained 0.29% to $85.86 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) 0.20% to $81.69.

(Written by Claude Chendjou, edited by Blandine Hénault)

by Claude Chendjou