The Paris Bourse is set to open slightly higher on Monday morning, with the market maintaining its bullish course following last week's record highs.

At around 8:15 a.m., the future contract on the CAC 40 index - now traded on the March expiry - was up 19.5 points at 7380.5, suggesting a favorable start to the session.

After losing up to 1.3% on Friday, the Paris market slowly made up lost ground throughout the day, ending the day with a limited decline of around 0.2% to 7347 points.

Over the past week as a whole, the CAC gained almost 3%, reaching a new all-time high of 7387.3 points on Thursday and extending its gains since the start of the year to over 13%.

Investors' appetite for risky assets was fuelled by solid corporate results, notably from heavyweights such as Airbus, Carrefour and Orange.

'Graphically, the curve is perfect, with the resistance zone between 7250 and 7300 points broken', point out the chart analysts at Kiplink, who believe that the CAC still has the potential to continue its upward trend.

Volumes are nevertheless expected to be low on Monday, in the absence of any direction from Wall Street, which will be closed all day due to 'Washington's Birthday'.

Trading is also likely to remain limited due to the absence of any major economic indicators, with no statistics on the day's agenda.

After a quiet day on the macroeconomic front on Monday, the rest of the week will be marked by a number of important dates, including tomorrow's publication of the latest PMI activity indices in Europe, before the release of Germany's Ifo business climate index on Wednesday.

For the time being, therefore, the only sticking point seems to be diplomatic relations between the USA and China, and the balloon launch issue.

On the corporate front, the earnings season is now officially drawing to a close, with only 61 of the companies in the S&P 500 index, including two Dow Jones components, due to publish their accounts this week.

Tomorrow, Walmart and Home Depot will unveil their quarterly performances, followed by Nvidia and Moderna by the end of the week.

In Europe, a number of heavyweights such as BASF, Capgemini, Engie, Holcim, HSBC, Stellantis and Telefonica will also be reporting over the coming days.

On the bond front, European markets are stabilizing after ending the past week on a positive note, with German Bunds holding steady at around 2.44% and French OATs at 2.90%.

On the currency front, the euro climbed back to around 1.0690 against the dollar after weakening last Wednesday following inflation figures that fuelled fears about the Fed's policy evolution.

On the energy front, Brent crude oil firmed up 0.8% to $83.6 a barrel, while US WTI advanced 0.6% to $76.8.

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