Paris (AFP)

The Paris Stock Exchange accentuated its gains Thursday at midday (+ 1.61%), and returned to above 5,000 points, before figures on employment in the United States in June which should consolidate the prospect of an economic recovery.

At 12.58 (10.58 GMT), the CAC 40 index took 79.20 points at 5.006.20 points. The day before, it had finished down slightly by 0.18%.

The Parisian rating got green in the opening and accelerated the pace during the morning.

Wall Street was preparing to open in the green too. The futures contract on the flagship Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 0.96%, the futures on the broad S&P 500 index 0.66% and the highly technological Nasdaq 0.39%.

"Investors are still torn by two opposing forces: that of the strong economic recovery and that which sees the health crisis recovering from force," underlined Franklin Pichard, chief executive officer of Kiplink.

But today "good economic indicators and the hope of a vaccine against Covid-19 after the announcement by Pfizer and German biotech BioNTech of the first positive results of a candidate vaccine against Covid-19, constitute a base likely to revive the morale of investors, "he added.

The main meeting of the day, the monthly employment report for the United States for June, should feed this optimistic current with an expected "significant gain", as Michael Hewson, an analyst at CMC Markets, points out.

These figures, still eagerly awaited by the markets, are published exceptionally Thursday and not Friday as usual, the New York Stock Exchange being closed on the eve of the American National Day on July 4.

In May, the unemployment rate in the United States had thwarted all forecasts, falling to 13.3% and the economy, yet knocked to its knees by the coronavirus pandemic, had created 2.5 million jobs.

In the eurozone, unemployment however increased very slightly in May, according to an estimate published Thursday by Eurostat.

The agenda of indicators also counts the American trade balance.

The health situation remains closely monitored, with a pandemic that is worsening worldwide, especially in the United States where a record level of new cases was reached on Wednesday with more than 50,000 new infections in 24 hours.

Investors will also follow a new episode of the legal-financial soap opera between the ECB and the German Constitutional Court. German deputies, in the wake of the government, plan to support the institution's aid programs on Thursday to end a conflict with the law threatening the future of aid plans for the euro zone.

- automobile and bank sought -

The good orientation of the market helped values ​​or sectors largely weakened by the crisis to recover, like Elis (+ 5.27% to 6.24 euros), Accor (+ 4.65% to 24.74 euros) or Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (+ 4.42% to 52.44 euros) and ArcelorMittal (+ 5.41% to 9.83 euros)

The automobile also benefited. Renault gained 4.05% to 22.37 euros and Peugeot 3.09% to 14.54 euros.

Banks were also wanted. BNP Paribas garnered 4.93% at 36.43 euros, Société Générale 5.21% at 15.46 euros and Crédit Agricole 3.44% at 8.67 euros.

Eutelsat (+ 3.70% to 8.36 euros) and SES (+ 3.31% to 6.24 euros) benefited from the statements of European Commissioner Thierry Breton who believes that the European Union must have its own constellation of satellites to provide high speed internet and thus strengthen its strategic autonomy and wants to "quickly propose" this project.

© 2020 AFP