(News Bulletin 247) – After a difficult week, the Paris Stock Exchange should open slightly higher on Friday morning as two major central banks – the Fed and the ECB – confirmed their restrictive approach.

Around 8:15 a.m., the ‘future’ contract on the CAC 40 index – May delivery – picked up 29.5 points to 7343 points, announcing a modest rebound after the sharp decline the day before.

The Parisian market had widened its losses yesterday to end with a decline of more than 0.8% despite the announcement of an increase of only 25 basis points in the key rates of the ECB, and not 50 basis points like the feared some.

Although the ECB has decided to slow down in the face of signs of a slowdown in activity and consumption, it should nevertheless continue its monetary tightening for longer, probably until July, with an established terminal rate target at 3.75%.

The Frankfurt-based institution is thus aligned with the US Federal Reserve, which has just raised its rates for the 10th time above 5%, a first since 2007.

The markets are still weakened by doubts surrounding the ability of central banks to bring down inflation while preserving growth which is tending to run out of steam.

In this context, the CAC 40 index fell below 7,350 points on Thursday, which seems to compromise the medium-term uptrend since it would have been necessary to close above 7,370 to save it.

“There is no doubt that the markets are nervous at the moment, awaiting the next developments around the US regional banking crisis,” said Jim Reid, market strategist at Deutsche Bank.

‘Anyway, the next few quarters will be long, bumpy and stressful’, warns the analyst.

The New York Stock Exchange ended lower on Thursday, amid fears around the setbacks of PacWest and the health of the banking sector in general: the Dow Jones dropped nearly 0.9% and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.5 %.

All of these concerns overshadow Apple’s strong earnings report last night after the close on Wall Street, as the tech giant far exceeded consensus estimates.

In this climate of risk aversion, the fixed income markets experienced an upturn that intensified as stock market indices increased their losses.

This morning, the yield on ten-year Treasuries is back around 3.38% after having eased significantly to around 3.30% yesterday, while the German 10-year returns to 2.23%, after closing below 2 .20% yesterday.

In terms of statistics, the main meeting of the day is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. with the publication of the report on employment in April in the United States, which will indicate whether the slowdown in activity has repercussions on the labor market.

Economists predict 160,000 job creations, after 189,000 the previous month.

Investors will also take note of the figures for industrial production in Germany and then retail sales in the euro zone, which will inform them of the reality of a recessionary threat on the Old Continent.

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