The Paris Bourse ended the final session of the week with a modest gain of 0.2%, at 7292 points, driven in particular by Renault (+1.8%) and Eurofins Scientific (+1.2%).

Volumes remained limited on this Black Friday, with just 2 billion euros traded since the opening, while the US markets only opened for half a session.

For the week as a whole, the CAC 40 gained 0.7%, well anchored above its major resistance of 7250 points.

The chartists at Kiplink Finance, who refer to a "technically perfect" bullish configuration, believe that the CAC's resistance enables it to envisage a rapid overtaking of the upper 7310/7340 point zone.

At this pace, we could soon be talking about an annual record," predicts the Paris-based brokerage.

The ECB's "minutes", published yesterday, showed that the Governing Council was ready for further rate hikes, even if this option does not correspond to its basic scenario (nobody believes in further monetary tightening).

The PMI indices released on Thursday showed that activity in the eurozone contracted for the sixth month in a row in November, further reinforcing the likelihood of a recession, a scenario the ECB is keen to avoid at all costs.

Germany's Ifo business climate index edged up to 87.3 in the current month, from 86.9 in October, when economists were expecting an average index of 87.5.

In the U.S., the only indicator on today's menu is the PMI index, which seems to have stabilized slightly above the critical 50-point threshold since September (+0.2% to 50.8), but the manufacturing PMI falls into contraction territory at 49.4 (vs. 49.9 expected).

T-Bonds nevertheless rallied by +6.7 points to 4.478%, which did nothing to help the dollar, which fell by -0.3%: the euro rallied back to $1.0935/euro. Bunds deteriorated marginally by +1.6Pt to 2.639%, with OATs barely adding +1Pt.

Crude oil prices are hesitant as investors' attention gradually turns to Vienna, where ministers from OPEC and its allies will decide on their production strategy next week.

Brent crude is up 0.9% at $82 a barrel, while the ounce of gold is back above $2,000.

In French company news, Thales has been awarded a contract by the French Defence Procurement Agency (DGA) to equip the first seven offshore patrol boats for the French Navy with maritime surveillance equipment.

Equasens, in association with ARZ HAAN, a leader in the German healthcare market, acquires the German company ADV (Apotheken Datenverarbeitung), which becomes Pharmagest Germany, through a holding company owned 6% by ARZ HAAN and 94% by Equasens.

Finally, EDF announced on Friday that the French government had launched a public consultation with a view to introducing a system to protect electricity consumers from 2026 onwards.


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