PARIS (Reuters) - The main European stock markets were in the red on Thursday morning, amid questions about interest rates and caution ahead of Friday's release of the monthly U.S. employment report.

In Paris, the CAC 40 lost 0.36% to 7,298.11 points around 08:55 GMT. In London, the FTSE 100 was down 0.49%, and in Frankfurt, the Dax gave up 0.06%.

Wall Street futures also forecast a drop of 0.1% for the Dow Jones, 0.2% for the Standard & Poor's 500 and 0.4% for the Nasdaq.

The market is nervous as US Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Jerome Powell, while still taking an offensive stance on interest rates, said on Wednesday that nothing had yet been decided for the March 21-22 meeting, and that this would essentially be based on the data expected between now and then.

The US Department of Labor is due to publish its employment report for February on Friday, following a sharp acceleration in job creation in January. Wednesday's employment data from ADP and the "Jolts" job openings survey showed the labor market to be still buoyant, despite the Fed's desire to curb demand in order to curb inflation. Weekly jobless claims figures for the US, due this Thursday at 13:30 GMT, will be closely watched to confirm or deny this momentum.

Meanwhile, according to CME Group's FedWatch barometer, markets now rate a 50 basis point Fed rate hike this month as 78.6% likely, compared with around 30% at the start of the week.

In Europe, where the level of inflation is also a matter of concern for the European Central Bank (ECB), Banque de France Governor François Villeroy de Galhau said on Thursday that it should be halved in France by the end of 2023, and that the Frankfurt-based institution was determined to bring it down to around 2% by the end of 2024, 2025.

On the stock market, the basic resources segment (-1.66%) posted the biggest sectoral fall, with the dollar close to a three-month high against a basket of major currencies.

Financial publications also drove trading, with Vivendi down 0.81% after posting an annual net loss (group share) of 1.01 billion euros, mainly due to the deconsolidation of Telecom Italia (-0.32%).

JCDecaux plunged 11.59% after its annual results, while the Group decided not to pay a dividend in 2023.

On the upside, Dassault Aviation jumped 9.39% after better-than-expected results for 2022.

Elsewhere in Europe, Aviva gains 3.51% after a 35% jump in operating profit in 2022 and the announcement of a share buyback program. Hugo Boss fell back 1.97% in response to a warning that its sales would slow this year, and German real estate group LEG Immobilien dropped 9% for suspending its dividend.

Credit Suisse lost 2.95% after announcing on Thursday that the publication of its annual report would be postponed following an intervention by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the US stock exchange regulator.

(Written by Claude Chendjou, edited by Blandine Hénault)