The day after the CAC40 gained more than 0.6%, the index posted a gain of around 0.6% towards 7490Pts, encouraged by the favorable direction of US equity markets the previous day.

The New York Stock Exchange ended Thursday's session in the green, with gains of more than 0.3% on the Dow Jones and 1.5% on the Nasdaq Composite, buoyed by hopes of an agreement in Washington to raise the US debt ceiling.

In a statement issued on Thursday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy gave an optimistic view, saying he saw 'the path we can take to reach an agreement'," said Wells Fargo.

"What's more, he even said he expected the House of Representatives to consider an agreement next week, with an 'agreement in principle' possible this weekend", added Deutsche Bank this morning.

On this side of the Atlantic, news looks particularly light on this so-called "three witches" session, as the day after Ascension Thursday is not expected to see any major corporate releases.

The only statistic of note in Europe, Germany's industrial producer price index rose by 4.1% year-on-year in April, marking a clear slowdown compared with the 6.7% increase recorded in March.

On the stock front, this morning UBS downgraded its recommendation on Ubisoft directly from 'buy' to 'sell', with a price target drastically reduced from 55 to 20 euros, a new target that implies a downside potential of 19% for the French video game publisher's stock.

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