PARIS (Reuters) – The main European stock markets consolidated Monday morning while awaiting numerous indicators expected this week and just over a week before the meetings of several major central banks.

In Paris, the CAC 40, which gained 0.73% over the past week, lost 0.19% to 7,332.11 points around 08:20 GMT. In London, the FTSE 100 lost 0.37%, penalized by the decline in the oil sector and copper prices. In Frankfurt, the Dax gained 0.03%.

The EuroStoxx 50 index fell by 0.14% and the FTSEurofirst 300 by 0.20%. The Stoxx 600, which gained 1.35% last week, lost 0.12%.

Futures contracts on Wall Street predict a drop of 0.15% for the Dow Jones, 0.29% for the Standard & Poor’s 500 and 0.39% for the Nasdaq after a session in the green on Friday, driven by the words considered reassuring by Jerome Powell.

The president of the American Federal Reserve (Fed), which meets on December 12 and 13, recognized on Friday that risks were now more balanced regarding the current level of interest rates.

Since then, the markets have a 70% probability of a Fed rate cut in March, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch barometer.

In addition to the Fed, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of England (BoE) also meet next week, while decisions from the Bank of Canada (Boc) and the RBA, the central bank of Australia , will be known on Tuesday.

Among the numerous indicators expected during the week are the indices of services activity in Europe and the United States scheduled for Tuesday, as well as the official report on American employment, scheduled for Friday.

Investors hope that they will reinforce the prospect of a soft landing for the American economy and a rapid drop in the cost of credit on both sides of the Atlantic.

The President of the ECB, Christine Lagarde, who is due to speak from 2:00 p.m. GMT as part of a question-and-answer session during a conference at the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, could also provide new elements on the evolution of rates and the economic situation.

On the stock market in Europe, new technologies (+0.15%) offer some support to the indices, notably with Worldline which gains 3.01% in Paris.

On the SBF 120, Valneva advanced 2.46% after reporting positive data on its vaccine against chikungunya on Monday.

Still in the health sector (+0.13%), Roche gained 1.90% thanks to the takeover of obesity treatment specialist Carmot for at least $2.7 billion.

Astrazeneca, for its part, fell 0.23% after the announcement of the signing of a $247 million agreement with the American artificial intelligence company Absci to design an antibody against cancer.

(Written by Claude Chendjou, edited by Blandine Hénault)

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