The Paris Bourse is likely to open with little change on Tuesday morning, as the Bank of Japan's (BoJ) decision to normalize its monetary policy has not jostled investors.

At around 8:15 a.m., the 'future' contract on the CAC 40 index - April delivery - was down seven points at 8163.5, suggesting a stable or even very slightly lower start to the session.

The last of the major central banks to maintain an ultra-accommodative policy, the Bank of Japan made a historic change of direction on Tuesday, turning its back on eight years of negative rates.

By a large majority, the BoJ committee opted for a key rate of between 0% and 0.1%, compared with -0.1% until now, in the face of resurgent inflation and rising wage tensions in the country.

This decision was rather well received by the markets, which know that this symbolic measure marks the beginning of a period of normalization rather than the start of a real tightening phase.

Given the fragility of the Japanese economy, analysts expect monetary policy to remain accommodative for a prolonged period

"The decision was widely expected, which explains the limited reaction of financial markets today", commented Danske Bank.

On Asian markets, the benchmark Nikkei index rallied to post a gain of over 0.6% following the announcements, returning to its all-time highs.

Since the start of the year, the Nikkei has gained almost 19%, on a par with the American "Magnificent Seven" and the great European "Granolas" (GSK, Roche, ASML, Nestlé, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, L'Oréal, LVMH, Astrazeneca, SAP and Sanofi).

Investors are now hoping that the US Federal Reserve will adopt a similarly reassuring tone at the end of its two-day meeting, due to start today.

However, some observers fear that the US central bank is preparing the ground for only two rate cuts this year, whereas it had previously expected three.

In view of the healthy state of the US economy, the money markets now rate an easing in June with only a 50.7% probability, according to the FedWatch barometer.

In the end, the first rate cut may not take place until the third quarter, a far cry from the initial projections of investors, who at the start of the year were hoping for a reduction in the cost of money as early as March.

"And it is perhaps this situation that could push equity markets to consolidate a little", warns Alexandre Baradez, Head of Market Analysis at IG France.

In Europe, market attention will focus later this morning on Germany's ZEW business climate index, whose component measuring expectations will be particularly closely watched for a possible economic upturn to come across the Rhine.

"Economic conditions in Germany are fragile, so it will be interesting to see whether things have changed in March before the publication of the PMI indices scheduled for Thursday", explains Danske Bank.

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