The Paris Bourse should open slightly higher on Friday morning, poised to end the week on a new weekly high as the quarterly earnings season kicks off today.

At around 8:15 a.m., the future contract on the CAC 40 index - January delivery - was up 19.5 points at 6997 points, pointing to a continuation of the upward trajectory of recent sessions.

Reassured by yesterday's inflation figures, which were in line with expectations, the Paris market ended Thursday's session with a gain of 0.7% at 6975 points.

The CAC even made a brief excursion above 7,000 points in the early afternoon, a level it had abandoned just over a year ago.

With a gain of almost 1.7% at this stage of the week, the Paris index is now almost 8% up since the start of the year.

With the chapter on US inflation temporarily closed, investor interest will now turn to the corporate earnings season, kicked off today by US banking groups.

Financial services giants Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo are all scheduled to unveil their fourth-quarter accounts mid-day.

After the reassuring economic indicators published in recent weeks, the markets are now waiting for corporate results to confirm the resilience of economic activity.

'Investors are not ready to hear negative rhetoric, as few warnings - a sign of a trend reversal - have been announced by companies', point out Kiplink analysts.

According to FactSet data, S&P 500 corporate earnings are expected to decline by just over 4% in the last three months of 2022.

Forecasts were more optimistic last September, with growth expected to reach 3.5%.

Chances are that the next few sessions will prove volatile, as it is not unusual for markets to hesitate until they can make up their minds not only on the quality of results, but also on the quality of their outlook.

As a support factor, Wall Street is entering this new earnings season with a historically low valuation level, with the S&P 500 currently boasting a price/earnings ratio (P/E) of 16.5 according to FactSet data, compared with a five-year historical average of 18.5.

A level that could lead investors to continue their recent cheap buybacks in the event of positive surprises.

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