The Paris Bourse is set to open with little change on Friday, as investors take a breather following a series of good corporate results that have boosted hopes of a soft landing for the economy.

At around 8.15am, the future contract on the February-delivered CAC 40 index fell by 2.5 points to 7102 points, heralding a stable or even slightly downbeat start to the session.

The Paris market had ended Thursday's session with a gain of 0.7%, at the 7,100-point mark (7,095 points), gaining nearly 10% since the start of the year.

The CAC benefited in particular from the spectacular performance of STMicroelectronics, which jumped more than 8% following the announcement of a 2022 net income almost double that of 2021.

Wall Street also finished higher on Thursday evening, buoyed by better-than-expected US growth and Tesla's results.

At the final bell, the Dow Jones gained 0.6%, while the Nasdaq Composite climbed nearly 1.8%.

Unless there are any surprises, earnings should once again dominate this final session of the week.

Last night, LVMH reported another "record" year in 2022, with sales of 79 billion euros and operating income before non-recurring items of 21 billion euros, both up 23%.

Across the Atlantic, Intel reported disappointing fourth-quarter results and a relatively gloomy outlook due to the slowdown in the PC market.

In addition to these two heavyweights, clothing chain H&M and global lighting leader Signify are also due to publish their results today, as are American Express and Colgate-Palmolive.

The quarterly results of energy giant Chevron will also be closely scrutinized.

Concerns over a so far lacklustre earnings season have not prevented the world's stock markets from continuing to rise in recent weeks.

The markets seem increasingly content with the prospect of a continued slowdown in inflation, likely to lead US monetary policy to become less restrictive.

In this respect, the session should also see the release of a raft of indicators, including US household spending and income, accompanied by the announcement of the 'PCE' deflator.

This measure of inflation is closely watched by the Fed, which considers it more representative of domestic tensions by reflecting labour market conditions, particularly wages.

In addition, the final figure for the consumer confidence index measured by the University of Michigan will be published in the afternoon.

On the rates market, US Treasury yields are easing a little, with 10-year Treasuries rising above 3.49% following yesterday's good US growth figures.

The dollar is also benefiting from the strength of macroeconomic indicators, returning to around 1.0875 against the euro.

Oil prices continue to rise on the New York NYMEX market, supported by signs of resilience in US demand.

The November contract for US light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) thus gains 0.2% to $81.2.

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