(News Bulletin 247) – The Parisian index is moving in the green at mid-session this Friday while the market nervously awaits the American employment figures at 2:30 p.m.

The CAC 40 regains some strength this Friday. The Parisian index advanced 0.8% to 7,054.38 points at midday. Over the week, it remains down 1.2% for the time being.

The big meeting of the day obviously remains American employment for the month of September which will be published at 2:30 p.m. this Friday. According to a consensus compiled by the Wall Street Journal, economists are counting on 170,000 job creations and an unemployment rate falling to 3.7% compared to 3.8% in August.

“All eyes are therefore on the September US employment report released this afternoon, because it could determine whether or not the Fed will raise rates one last time and whether the theme of ‘higher rates for longer’ must further push long-term rates higher. Indeed, now that inflation is slowing more significantly and financial conditions are clearly restrictive, the factor that could decide the Fed to be more or less restrictive than indicated in September is the evolution of tensions on the job market”, underlines Xavier Chapard of LBPAM.

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Alstom does not bounce back

In terms of values, it is almost dead calm. Alstom fell again by 3.7%, an anecdotal drop or almost in view of that of the day before, of -37.58%, which is however not the strongest in a session for a CAC 40 stock.

Air France-KLM continues its surge, gaining 3.3% after 3.75% on Wednesday. The action has been supported for several sessions by the drop in oil prices, the consolidation of the airline market, and a positive opinion from Bernstein.

On the other hand, Maisons du Monde continues to plunge, losing 7% after 15.1% on Thursday, while TP ICAP Midcap switched to selling on the issue yesterday.

Europacorp lost 1.9% while the stock experienced a bout of weakness for several sessions which coincided with the sluggish start of Luc Besson’s latest film, “Dogman”, in French cinemas.

On other markets, the euro advanced 0.1% against the dollar to 1.0562 dollars. Oil contracts are sluggish. The December contract on Brent from the North Sea advanced 0.2% to 84.23 dollars per barrel while that of November on WTI listed in New York gained 0.28% to 82.5 dollars per barrel.