The Paris Bourse is expected to open higher on Friday, as a fresh round of economic indicators promises to liven up the final session of what has so far been a positive week.

At around 8:15 a.m., the future contract on the CAC 40 index was up 31 points at 7,775.5, pointing to a positive start to the session and new all-time highs in early trading.

This renewed optimism comes at a time when the many statistics published this week have testified to the robustness of the US economy, but also - to some extent - to the resilience of activity in Europe.

Goldman Sachs yesterday raised its forecast for the pan-European STOXX Europe 600 index, which the US investment bank now sees reaching 510 points over 12 months, equivalent to a gain of around 5% on current levels.

In a strategy note, Goldman justifies its greater optimism with the prospect of an improvement in the European economy over the coming months.

The markets will be able to assess more precisely the evolution of the economy and the timing of the next easing measures expected from central banks with the release of a whole series of indicators in the coming hours.

At 2.30pm, investors will be watching US producer price figures, a component of the PCE index, the Fed's preferred measure of inflation.

Building permits and housing starts are likely to continue to be penalized by high interest rates, even though mortgage rates have eased since their peak, with hopes of a Fed rate cut.

On Wall Street, US equity markets - which are trading close to their recent record levels - are heading for their 15th week of gains out of 16.

The Dow Jones index gained 0.9% to 38,773 points, and came within 0.1% of beating Monday's closing record (38,798 points).

The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.3% to 15,906.2 points.906.2 points, a momentum that should continue today thanks to Applied Materials' good results, which were greeted by a 10% surge in after-hours trading.

On the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the Nikkei index gained 0.9% to set new 34-year highs and return to within touching distance of its all-time record, set in December 1989.

In China, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained 2.5% on hopes of further support measures from Beijing for several strategic sectors.

On the bond front, the yield on ten-year Treasuries gave up some ground at 4.24%, after hitting almost three-month highs at the start of the week.

The euro was virtually stable at $1.0760, while oil prices resumed their upward trend despite the International Energy Agency's downward revision on Thursday of its demand forecasts for 2024.

North Sea Brent is currently up 1.5% at over $82.6 a barrel, while US light crude (WTI) is up 1.8% at around $78.

At this stage of the week, the CAC 40 index is up over 1.2% a week, bringing its gains since January 1 to 2.6%.

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