(News Bulletin 247) – The Paris Stock Exchange should continue its soft consolidation on Friday morning in a market that is visibly in need of a breather after its thunderous start to the year.

Around 8:15 a.m., the ‘futures’ contract on the CAC 40 index – March delivery – advanced 37.5 points to 7365.5 points, announcing a continuation of the modest rebound that began the day before.

After having chained four consecutive sessions of decline, the Parisian market had managed to recover timidly yesterday by signing a gain of 0.25% to 7317 points, driven in particular by the good results of AXA.

Following the good performance made since the beginning of the year (already +13% for the CAC index), investors seem to want to catch their breath while waiting to see a little more clearly on the economy and rates.

‘The CAC 40 index has come to a halt at the 7300 point zone, but the most striking fact is its surprising strength of resilience’, underline the technical analysts of Kiplink Finance.

‘The maintenance of this level seems to become quite decisive to remain in an upward trend and maintain a short-term objective at 7375/7400 points’, underlines the brokerage firm.

‘A contrario, a continuation of the downward pressure towards the support of 7205 points could lead to a change of configuration more durable’, warn the chartists.

Caution should remain in order this morning pending a headline measure of inflation in the United States.

Given the recent resurgence of concerns about inflation, investors will not fail to follow, at the very beginning of the afternoon, the figures for US household income and expenditure.

This statistic is accompanied by the so-called ‘core PCE’ price index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation barometer.

The consensus expects an increase of 4.3% over one year in January, against 4.4% in December.

‘CPI inflation only slowed slightly in January’, say the economists at Oddo BHF. ‘We can expect a similar result
on inflation in the sense of the PCE index’, they add.

‘Not enough to make the Fed more accommodating in the short term’, summarizes the private bank.

After a long sequence of deterioration since the beginning of the month, the bond markets are also recovering, with buyers gradually regaining control.

A marked easing is taking place in particular in the United States, where the yield on 10-year Treasuries fell below 3.88% after peaking at 3.96% at the start of the week, its highest since last November.

On the foreign exchange market, the dollar quietly continued its rise, regaining a little more ground against the euro, in the 1.0590 area.

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