(News Bulletin 247) – The Paris Stock Exchange should open slightly higher on Friday morning, investors being careful not to take too many risks while waiting for the publication of several indicators in the services sector.

Around 8:15 a.m., the ‘future’ contract on the CAC 40 index – March delivery – advanced 17 points to 7310.5 points, announcing a start to the session in the green.

After a gloomy morning, the Parisian market had managed to regain its equilibrium point on Thursday before returning to positive territory in the afternoon to end the day with a gain of 0.7% to 7284 points.

While inflation, which is slow to subside, still continues to worry investors, the equity markets are still showing great resilience, as illustrated by the gain of more than 1.3% currently posted by the CAC since the beginning of the week.

And if global growth surprises on the upside, its strength also shows that the massive rate hikes decided in the United States and Europe have so far failed to significantly slow down activity.

‘Inflation is receding but in a disorderly manner with a salary dimension that is still worrying’, explains Emmanuel Auboyneau, associate manager at Amplegest.

‘Faced with this finding, central banks are questioning themselves and could extend their restrictive policies longer than expected,’ adds the professional.

The doubts surrounding the evolution of the monetary policies of the major central banks continue to push bond yields upwards, leading to new records for French OATs and German Bunds.

In Europe, the start of the session will be punctuated by the results of the monthly surveys of purchasing managers (PMI) on the activity of services in the economies of the euro zone.

The latest PMIs, all of which came out well above the 50-point expansion threshold, dismissed the risk of an imminent recession on the Old Continent by showing that the service sector was on the rise.

“Demand is on the rise, bottlenecks in production chains are receding, and consumer confidence is rising,” said Philippe de Gouville, CEO and co-founder of fintech Ismo.

Investors are also awaiting the publication, at 4:00 p.m., of the ISM services index in the United States, expected to decline slightly in February, although still in expansion territory.

Yesterday, Wall Street ended higher, supported by the surge of cloud-based enterprise software designer Salesforce, which soared more than 11% after forecasts that impressed the market.

The Dow Jones gained more than 1%, the S&P 500 gained nearly 0.8% and the Nasdaq Composite gained more than 0.7%.

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