The Paris Bourse should start the final session of the year in the green on Friday morning, and like all the major equity markets, is heading for a double-digit rise for the year, against a backdrop of hopes for future rate cuts.

At around 8:15 a.m., the January-delivered futures contract on the CAC 40 index was up 8.5 points at 7554.5 points, heralding a modest rise at the opening.

The CAC is unlikely to finish the year above the symbolic 7600-point mark, but at this stage it is posting an annual gain of over 16%, a performance that remains slightly below that of the Euro STOXX 50 index or Germany's DAX (+19%).

Over 2023 as a whole, the index's best performers are Stellantis (+59%), Saint-Gobain (+45%) and Publicis (+41%), while Alstom (-47%) and Teleperformance (-40%) are at the back of the pack.

The fact that the CAC is poised to end 2023 at levels close to its highs for the year could, however, set the tone for 2024, say analysts.

In a note published last night, Dan Ives, the star analyst at Wedbush Securities, said he expected a further rise of around 25% in major US technology stocks next year, which would be an undeniable driving force for global equity markets.

In the meantime, trading is likely to be sparse today, and the few traders present on this New Year's Eve will have absolutely nothing to get their teeth into.

Despite this low trading volume over the festive period, Wall Street continues its upward trajectory, as is traditionally the case between Christmas and New Year's.

In New York, investors were delighted yesterday by data published during the day by the US Department of Labor showing that weekly jobless claims rose in the USA.

This news lends credence to the scenario of a slowdown in the job market, a soft landing for growth and, consequently, an easing of the Fed's monetary policy.

This upwardly mobile close set new all-time highs for both the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq 100.

In this anaemic end-of-year market, oil prices should continue to be the main driving force behind the trend.

Following a 3% fall, which wiped out all its gains since December 18, a barrel of US light crude (WTI) has stabilized in the $72 zone.

As a small support factor, the US Energy Information Agency (EIA) announced yesterday that US crude oil inventories had fallen by 6.9 million barrels last week.

Metals prices lost ground on Friday after their end-of-year rally, which took the price of an ounce of gold to new all-time highs.

On the foreign exchange market, the dollar is regaining some of its color, but its surge remains modest, and the break of multiple supports this week has not been invalidated.

The euro is currently stable, at around 1.1070, but is holding above the former resistance of 1.1030.

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