The Paris Bourse is set to open lower on Thursday morning, with investors cautious following Wall Street's sharp decline the previous day and ahead of the publication of numerous economic indicators in the United States.

At around 8:15 a.m., the 'future' contract - January delivery - on the CAC 40 index dropped more than 45 points to 7562 points, heralding an opening in negative territory.

After setting new all-time highs above 7600 points last week, the Paris market had entered a phase of horizontal consolidation since the start of the week.

Confirmation of the reactivation of the long-term uptrend is still in the balance, and it's the breakout of the 7612.5/7644 points zone that will really validate it", say the analysts at Kiplink Finance.

"We would then target 7706 or even 7776 points", explains the Paris-based brokerage.

On the other hand, a break of 7565 points would sound the intraday alarm, with the bottom of the bullish channel active since October in view, which lies between 7500 and 7512 points", adds Kiplink.

In New York, the S&P 500 yesterday suffered its worst correction since September 26 (-1.5%), a surprise fall that no-one had seen coming given the euphoric climate that had prevailed for a week.

A number of indicators are expected to drive the markets on Thursday, ahead of tomorrow's release of household income and expenditure figures, including the PCE price index, which is closely watched by the Federal Reserve.

Also on the agenda are the third estimate of Q3 GDP, the Philly Fed index, jobless claims and leading indicators from the Conference Board.

Figures that are neither too good nor too bad would confirm the scenario of a "soft landing" for the US economy, and thus the prospect of Fed rate cuts that accompanies it.

In the meantime, the US bond market remains on a downward trend, after further deepening its losses yesterday: the yield on ten-year Treasuries is back towards 3.87%, the lowest since mid-July.

The European market is following suit, with the yield on the ten-year Bund now firmly anchored below the 2% threshold.

Oil prices are stabilizing, but are still heading for a week's rise due to the increasing number of attacks by Yemeni Houthi rebels, close to Iran, on ships in the Red Sea, which are disrupting maritime trade.

Brent crude is stabilizing at around $74.2 a barrel, and US light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) is up 0.1% at $79.7.

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