The Paris Bourse is set to open without any major trend on Wednesday morning, catching its breath after last week's all-time highs and awaiting a new wave of earnings reports.

At around 8.15am, the February-delivery future contract on the CAC 40 index was down 11.5 points at 7,660.5, pointing to a stable or even modestly rising start to the session.

The Paris market had set a new all-time high last Wednesday, above 7,700 points, at the end of a bullish sequence fueled by greater confidence in the economic outlook.

Valuation levels are still very attractive (especially relative to US equities)", says Laura Corrieras, equity portfolio manager at Indosuez Wealth Management.

The analyst warns, however, that a number of uncertainties are likely to persist, particularly in the economic and geopolitical spheres.

Given the more cyclical nature of the European equity market, if macroeconomic indicators turn out to be weaker than expected, or the Goldilocks scenario is called into question, the region could underperform other markets", she warns.

But it's too early to act on this scenario", adds the manager.

The day will be marked by a new wave of quarterly corporate results, with reports from TotalEnergies, Uber, Equinor, Vinci, Carlsberg, Pandora and Siemens Energy.

While earnings releases remain the focus of attention, investors will also be watching the day's economic indicators, in the hope that they will confirm the 'soft landing' scenario.

After six months of contraction in a row, industrial production could stabilize, or even recover, in Germany in December.

It is difficult to hope for a recovery in the German economy, currently in a modest recession, without a recovery in industry and exports", say Oddo BHF's teams.

The New York Stock Exchange consolidated horizontally on Tuesday, but a slightly bullish bias prevailed in the end as bond yields fell.

The Dow Jones index (+0.4%) posted its second-best ever close, within 0.3% of a new record, and a seventh gain in nine sessions.

The Nasdaq Composite finished in the green in extremis (+0.1%) despite the underperformance of the major technology stocks, particularly the 'Magnificent Seven', which have been a little less in the limelight of late.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange ended slightly down (-0.1%), but Chinese stock markets were better oriented as Beijing pledged to take measures to boost domestic consumption in 2024 and step up efforts to increase the value of listed companies' investments.

The CSI 300 index of leading Chinese stocks thus recovered 0.9%.

On the bond market, US Treasury yields continued their decline of the previous day, while the timetable for future rate cuts remains highly uncertain.

The yield on ten-year Treasuries fell back to 4.09%, and benchmark yields in the eurozone followed suit, with the ten-year German Bund dropping to 2.29%.

The oil market is stabilizing ahead of the release of weekly US crude inventories later this afternoon.

Brent crude is down just 0.1% to $78.5 a barrel, while US light crude is unchanged at $73.3.

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