Paris (AFP)

The Paris Bourse was treading water (+ 0.04%) Friday at midday, investors limiting initiatives before seeing the monthly report on employment in the United States in December.

At 1.31 p.m. (12.31 p.m. GMT), the CAC 40 index was 2.22 points to 6.044.77 points. The day before, it had closed in small progression of 0.19%.

The Parisian rating took a few steps upwards before choosing caution and coming to anchor in equilibrium.

Wall Street was preparing to open in the green. The futures contract for the flagship Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 0.19%, the futures contract for the broad S&P 500 index was 0.22% and the futures contract for the highly technological Nasdaq was 0.34%.

"Volatility is low before the US employment report," said David Madden, an analyst at CMC Markets. "The mood is chilly since this morning" while waiting for these figures. The consensus is for 164,000 new jobs, "but keep in mind that in November there were 266,000."

"The macroeconomics is gaining the upper hand after a week almost exclusively devoted to the geopolitical risk which had the consequence of blowing hot and cold on the world stock markets", for a "session which will be mainly devoted to American employment", also esteemed Christopher Dembik, head of economic research at Saxo Bank.

Tensions between Iran and the United States are passing into the background, while remaining a source of attention for investors, who are notably monitoring the latest developments regarding the plane crash near Tehran. Iran categorically denied Friday the thesis that the Boeing 737 was hit by a missile, a runway favored by several countries, including Canada, many of whose citizens perished in the crash.

The region has returned to center stage after the assassination of a powerful Iranian general last week, pushing oil prices up and indices down.

But on Wednesday, the American president played the card of appeasement after Iranian missile fire on bases sheltering American soldiers in Iraq who did not make a victim. If he announced the immediate imposition of new economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic, Donald Trump has not mentioned a military response, removing the specter of an escalation for the time being.

In terms of indicators, in addition to American employment in December, French industrial production increased slightly in November. And the Banque de France confirmed its estimate of a slowdown in economic growth for the country in the fourth quarter of 2019 at 0, 2%, strikes having notably led to a deceleration in activity in services in December.

- Galvanized Orchestra-Prémaman -

In the field of values, Airbus fell 0.46% to 134.30 euros after announcing to increase from five to seven planes its monthly production of A320 family aircraft produced at its American factory in Mobile, in the south of United States.

Vivendi was stable (-0.08% at 25.95 euros). After more than three years of conflict with Mediaset, the two groups are preparing for a new face-to-face tense Friday at a general meeting aimed at amending the European project of the group of the Berlusconi family, which is challenged by the French giant media.

In addition, the company See Tickets, owned by the giant Vivendi, has announced the acquisition of the Swiss ticketing service Starticket, the second largest player with 25% of the market in the country, from the media group TX Group.

Publicis fell 0.19% to 41.94 euros in the wake of the announcement of the sale of the press agency specializing in leisure Relaxnews, acquired in 2015 and which focuses on audio.

Orchestra-Prémaman was galvanized (+ 68.64% to 0.37 euro) with sales up slightly in the third quarter. The children's clothing specialist was placed in the backup procedure for six months at the end of September due to financial difficulties.

© 2020 AFP