The star CAC 40 index grabbed 5.79 points to 7,142.89 points around 10 a.m.

On Monday, the Paris market was weighed down by the rise in bond rates and geopolitical tensions which caused it to lose 1.34%.

"The markets still seem to be digesting last Friday's US employment report with implications for Fed policy" and expect its rates to slightly exceed 5% after monetary tightening, commented Natixis CIB analysts .

On Friday, higher-than-expected figures on the US job market indeed caused a change in the expectations of investors who hoped to see the Fed soon pause in its fight against inflation.

In this context, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's speech on Tuesday evening will capture the full attention of investors.

In terms of macroeconomic data, industrial production in Germany fell 3.1% in December over one month, hit hard by the energy crisis and the war in Ukraine.

Energy-intensive industries, such as chemicals, metallurgy, paper and glass are particularly affected and saw their production fall by 6.1%.

Over one year, the loss for these branches even reached 19.6%.

"The former engine of growth of the German economy is stuttering, and no improvement is really in sight," commented Tuesday Carsten Brzeski, expert for ING.

The geopolitical tensions between China and the United States, which shot down a Chinese balloon which had been flying over their territory for several days, are also making investors a little more nervous.

US President Joe Biden will deliver his State of the Union address on Tuesday.

Record profit for BNP

The first European bank BNP Paribas recorded a record net profit in 2022, at 10.2 billion euros, up 7.5% year on year, and raised the objectives of its strategic plan for 2025.

Its action rose 1.60% to 61.72 euros.

TotalEnergies supported by BP

The oil giant TotalEnergies, which will publish its results on Wednesday, climbed 2.01% to 56.78 euros, after the presentation of the annual accounts of the British BP.

BP reported a net loss in 2022, penalized by a large charge related to the war in Ukraine, but its profit excluding exceptional items more than doubled over one year to 27.7 billion, boosted by high hydrocarbon prices.

jvi/ys/nth

European stock markets began the session without any real trend on Tuesday, waiting for a speech by the president of the American central bank (Fed) Jerome Powell, scheduled after the close of European markets.

The Paris Stock Exchange took 0.12% to 7,145.84 points at 9:00 a.m. (08:00 GMT), Frankfurt also gleaned 0.09%, Milan gained 0.31% and London 0.24% in the first exchanges.

© 2023 AFP