Down by around 0.1%, CAC40 futures augur a cautious opening to the '4 Witches' session, following a day which saw the Parisian index generally resist several lackluster statistics released in the United States.

This afternoon's US data were relatively mixed," commented Michael Brown of Pepperstone on Thursday evening, pointing to a fairly solid rebound in retail sales, but also to the strongest annualized rise in producer prices since September.

However, the market analyst felt that "it is highly unlikely that the data will move the FOMC's outlook, with the first 25 basis point cut still likely to come in June".

This third Friday in March will be marked by the '4 Witches', i.e. the quarterly expiry of four types of derivatives, as well as by a new salvo of statistics in the USA, including import prices and industrial production.

In the meantime, Parisian operators are due to take note shortly of the French consumer price index for February, announced as a provisional estimate at +2.9% annualized after +3.1% in January.

In other stock news, Bolloré published on Thursday evening a net income (group share) of 268 million euros for 2023, after 3.4 billion the previous year, on stable sales of nearly 13.7 billion (-5% in organic terms).

Euroapi has suspended its 2024 outlook, due to the suspension of API production at its Brindisi site in Italy due to quality control failures, a situation that is expected to impact the Group's operating and financial performance.

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