Cautious start in Europe, US unemployment on the agenda

PARIS, December 30 (Reuters) – Major European stock markets move without much change but remain close to their recent highs Thursday morning as investors remain torn between cautious optimism on the continued economic recovery and the risks associated with the dramatic spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. In Paris, the CAC 40, which briefly crossed the 7,200 point threshold for the first time on Wednesday, grapples 0.05% to 7,165.23 points at 08:30 GMT. In London, the FTSE 100 lost 0.18% and in Frankfurt, the Dax posted a symbolic gain of 0.02%. The EuroStoxx 50 index is up 0.17%, the FTSEurofirst 300 0.09% and the Stoxx 600 0.13%, less than 0.5% of its all-time high on November 17th. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones (+ 0.25%) and Standard & Poor’s 500 (+ 0.14%) ended Wednesday on new closing records while the Nasdaq gave up 0.1% and futures contracts currently suggest a stable opening. The only important economic meeting of the day will be the publication, at 13:30 GMT, of the weekly figures of jobless claims in the United States, expected to rise very slightly. The strongest sector increase in Europe is for the high technology compartment, whose Stoxx index gained 0.58%, the most marked decrease for that of energy (-0.19%). ASML rose 1.27%, the best performance of the EuroStoxx 50, while BP dropped 0.36%. (Written by Marc Angrand, edited by Matthieu Protard)