PARIS (Reuters) – The main European stock markets are expected to rise slightly at the opening on Friday, as investors are reluctant to take strong positions for this last session of the week before the publication of a closely followed measure of inflation in the States. -United.

The first indications available give an increase of 0.37% for the Parisian CAC 40, 0.3% for the Dax in Frankfurt, 0.31% for the FTSE in London and 0.42% for the EuroStoxx 50 .

The trend on Wednesday in Europe was generally supported by the publication of a series of good corporate results, but the fear that central banks will continue to raise their interest rates for longer is nonetheless still present.

A growing list of indicators, however, show that the US economy is in better shape than expected, giving hope that a recession can be avoided. But it also forced investors to revise expectations for the Fed’s final rate level upwards.

Investors will be watching the US household income and spending figures for January at 13:30 GMT, which include the PCE price index.

“It seems very unlikely that inflation will come down quickly unless the unemployment rate starts to rise and demand slows, which doesn’t seem to be the case yet,” said Michael Hewson at CMC Markets.

“Given the strength of recent economic data, the day’s data could put an end to the disinflationary trend, with the price index excluding energy and food products, the inflation indicator favored by the Federal Reserve, not expected to decline. only modestly from 4.4% to 4.3%”.

AT WALL STREET

The New York Stock Exchange ended higher on Thursday as the S&P-500 snapped a four-session streak in the red as investors continued to question the impact of Fed monetary policy on the economy. American.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.33%, or 108.82 points, to 33,153.91 points. The S&P-500 gained 21.27 points, or 0.53%, to 4,012.32 points and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 83.33 points (+0.72%) to 11,590.40 points.

Seven of the 11 major sectors of the S&P-500 ended up, notably energy (+1.27%), driven by the rise in oil prices.

Communication services declined (-0.66%) for a fifth day in a row, weighed down by Netflix, which fell 3.4% after announcing a drop in the price of its subscription in around thirty of country.

On the other hand, solid quarterly results and better than expected forecasts from Nvidia (+14%) reassured investors.

IN ASIA

The Nikkei on the Tokyo Stock Exchange gained 1.29%, values ​​linked to the semiconductor industry having benefited from the good forecasts of the American Nvidia while Kazuo Ueda, designated by the government to be the next governor of the Bank of Japan, supported the current policy of the institution during a hearing in Parliament.

“Overall, he’s trying to portray himself as the guarantor of continuity, at least to start with,” said Sean Callow at Westpac. “Now is not the time to make his mark on politics, that is not why the government chose him.”

Data released in the morning showed that the consumer price index hit a new high of 4.2 percent year on year in January.

The trend in China is slowed down by the tensions between Beijing and Washington, which penalize most sectors, with the notable exception of defense companies.

The CSI 300 index of large caps in mainland China fell by 1.13% and the SSE Composite of Shanghai by 0.73%.

EXCHANGES/RATES

On the foreign exchange market, the wait-and-see attitude limits variations, whether in the dollar index (-0.06%) or the euro (+0.01%) at 1.0596.,

The yield on ten-year US government bonds fell about two basis points to 3.8615%, further away from the three-month peak recorded the day before at 3.978%.

OIL

Oil prices advanced for a second session in a row, the prospect of a drop in Russian exports outweighing the announcement of an increase in crude inventories in the United States.

Brent gained 0.8% to 82.87 dollars a barrel and American light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) 0.82% to 76.01 dollars.

(Laetitia Volga, edited by Nicolas Delame)

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