While the European Central Bank (ECB) will decide on its key rates in the early afternoon, European stock markets should open close to equilibrium this Thursday.

As part of a state visit that will discuss in particular the free trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur, the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron receives this Thursday at the Elysée Palace the Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Worldline and Saint-Gobain are holding their general meeting on Thursday

The electronic payments specialist Worldline announced on Wednesday evening that it had purchased 320 million euros of its bonds with the option of conversion and/or exchange into existing new or existing shares (Oceane) into new or existing shares (Oceane) maturing in July 2026.

The manufacturer of seamless tubes for the oil industry Vallourec announced on Thursday that its Delphy vertical hydrogen storage solution had been approved by the certification body DNV.

Before the European Central Bank decided on its rates, futures on European equity markets stagnated this morning, with an overall negative trend. At around 7:45am, the DAX 40 futures contract in Frankfurt was stable, as was the FTSE 100 in London, according to data

It is widely expected that the ECB will cut rates again, bringing the policy rate down to two percentage points lower than at the same time last year. The deposit rate, the main key ECB rate, is currently set at 2.25%.
The New York Stock Exchange closed without direction on Wednesday after the publication of a disappointing indicator on the American labor market. The Dow Jones index fell 0.2% to 42,427.74 points. The S&P 500 remained stable at 5,970.81 points, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.3% at 19,460.49 points. According to Sinead Colton Grant, chief investment officer at BNY Wealth, the slightly weaker economic data “raised expectations of further Fed rate cuts

On the American business side, semiconductor manufacturer Broadcom is due to publish its latest quarterly results in the evening after the close of Wall Street.
In Asia, the Nikkei index on the Tokyo Stock Exchange fell by 0.5% on Thursday at the end of trading. The Hang Seng Index on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange rose by 0.6%, while the Shanghai Composite rose by 0.1%.

After the sharp drop on Wednesday, US Treasury yields rose slightly. Tony Rodriguez of Nuveen, the decline in returns was likely the result of a readjustment in investor bets on the strength of the American labor market

The ADP report recorded 37,000 jobs created in the private sector in May, against an economists' consensus of 110,000 jobs. The sharp drop in sovereign bond yields that followed could reflect a realignment of expectations for the official employment figures (which also include government officials) that will be published this Friday. These are expected to slow to 125,000 job creations in May, against 177,000 net job creations in April.
At around 7:45am on Wednesday, the 10-year US Treasury bond rate rose 1 basis point (0.01 percentage point), to 4.37%. The two-year bond yield was stable at 3.88%

The greenback gained 0.25% against the Japanese currency, at 143.13 yen. Around 7:45am, the euro lost was down by 0.1% to 1.1409 dollars.

Oil fell slightly on Thursday. According to Antonio Di Giacomo of XS.com , a report “indicates that Saudi Arabia is exerting considerable pressure for a more aggressive increase in oil supply by OPEC+.” For the latter, the “kingdom is actively seeking to regain market share, an objective that motivates its desire to accelerate production increases in the coming months.” The analyst also said that the country's strategy focuses on getting OPEC+ to increase production by at least 411,000 barrels per day

Around 7:45 a.m., the July contract for North Sea Brent traded in London lost 11 cents, or 0.2%, to 64.75 dollars per barrel. The contract of the same maturity on light sweet crude (WTI) listed on Nymex fell by 22 cents, or 0.35%, to