The Paris Bourse is stable at around 6765 points, as the afternoon session is marked by the release of US employment figures, which should be the highlight of a week rich in indicators.

Economists are forecasting an average of 200,000 new non-agricultural jobs in December, following the 263,000 announced for November.

Investors will be on the lookout for any sign of a sharper-than-anticipated slowdown in employment after the indicators of the last few days, which have reinforced the scenario that the Federal Reserve will maintain a restrictive policy in the coming months.

'Employment is slowing but not falling, in a context of insufficient available labour', point out the teams at Oddo BHF.

Wage gains have plateaued at around 5-6% since the summer, which is too high given the Fed's inflation target', explains the private bank.

According to the CME Group's FedWatch barometer, the consensus is currently for two 25-point rate hikes in February and March, with a 50-point hike in February not being formally ruled out, with an estimated probability of 41%.

The markets' reaction to the employment figures will therefore be decisive for the CAC 40's weekly performance: at this stage, the Paris index is off to a spectacular start to the year, with a gain of 4.4%.

In addition to the US employment figures, later this morning investors will also take note of consumer price figures for December in the eurozone, which should confirm the trend towards easing inflationary pressures in the region.

European government bond yields eased slightly ahead of the US employment figures, although the hopes of a rate cut that had buoyed the markets last autumn faded with each passing week: the ten-year German Bund returned to 2.26%.

The price of a barrel of oil is down over 7% for the week, due in part to fears about the health of Chinese industry.

Brent crude is currently down 0.3% at around $78.6, while WTI is down 0.6% at $73.4.

In company news, Getlink reports that its Eurotunnel Le Shuttle passenger shuttle service under the English Channel carried more than 100,000 passenger vehicles between Folkestone and Coquelles over the end-of-year vacation period.

Stellantis announced the creation of Mobilisights, a business unit entirely dedicated to the growth of DaaS (Data as a Service) activities and the development and licensed distribution of B2B products, applications and services.

Eiffage announced yesterday that the consortium comprising Eiffage Métal, leader of the consortium, and EiffageConstruction, had won the contract awarded by STMicroelectronics to extend its production site in Crolles.

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