After a decline the day before, European equity markets are expected to rise on Thursday. The Eurostoxx 50 at 4,064.30 points (-1.05%), the CAC 40 at 6,507.83 points (-0.91%), the DAX 30 at 15,531.04 points (-1.02%), the FTSE 100 at 7,037.47 points (-0.71%), the SMI at 11,942.72 points (-0.71%), the AEX at 729.52 points (-0.64%), the BEL 20 at 4,125.95 points (-0.78%), the IBEX 35 at 8,821.20 points (-1.05%), the DJIA at 34,502.51 points (+0.61%), the Nasdaq at 14,503.95 points (-0.17%), the S&P 500 at 4,297.50 points (+0.13%) and the Nikkei 225 at 28,667.05 points (-0.43%).

The change from the close in New York shows an overall decline. EUR/USD (1.1849) and EUR/JPY (131.64) lost 0.08% while USD/JPY posted 111.11 down (0.01%).

In France, the water and waste management group Suez confirmed its financial objectives for 2021 on Wednesday evening, after observing a rebound in its activities since the start of the year. Suez's general meeting on Wednesday approved the payment of a cash dividend of 0.65 euros per share for 2020. On Tuesday evening, Suez's board of directors had also recommended that its shareholders contribute their shares in Veolia's takeover bid, which will be launched by the end of the year.

On the macroeconomic side, the PMI for the manufacturing sector for the month of June will appear at 9:50 am. Economists polled by the Wall Street Journal saw a slight decline in the index, to 58.6 from 59.4 in May. INSEE will publish its economic report on Thursday at 6 p.m.

European equity markets are expected to open higher on Thursday, after weakening the day before, but concerns over the Delta variant of Covid-19 remain. Around 7:10 a.m., the CAC 40 futures contract gained 30.3 points, or 0.5%, according to data from broker IG Markets. The contract on the DAX 30 gained 48.5 points, or 0.3%, and that on the FTSE 100 rose by 5.7 points, or 0.08%. Attention will turn on Thursday to the publication of the PMI indices for the manufacturing sector in the euro zone and the main countries of the region. Investors will also be watching unemployment figures in the euro zone, as well as the ministerial meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) and the introductory speech by the President of the European Central Bank (ECB). , Christine Lagarde, before the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee of the European Parliament.

The New York Stock Exchange ended generally higher on Wednesday and the S&P 500 reached a new all-time high, thanks to good statistics on employment in the private sector in the United States. The Dow Jones Index (DJIA) ended up 0.6% at 34,502.51 points, approaching just over 200 points from its last record set in early May. The broader S&P 500 index posted a 34th record since the start of the year, rising 0.1% to 4,297.50 points.

In Asia, the main stock market indices fell back on Thursday. At the end of the session, the Nikkei index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange lost 0.4%, the Shanghai Composite yielded 0.1% and the Hang Seng index fell by 0.6% in Hong Kong.

In China, the manufacturing PMI fell to 51.3 in June from 52 in May, Caixin and IHS Markit said Thursday. It exceeds the official index released Wednesday by the National Bureau of Statistics, which stood at 50.9.

U.S. government bond yields were little changed on Thursday morning, after posting a broad-based decline on Wednesday despite an ADP U.S. private sector employment report showing the labor market gradually recovering from the coronavirus pandemic . However, at the end of the session, yields on two-year bonds posted their largest quarterly increase since 2018, while those on long-dated bonds showed their sharpest quarterly decline since the period ending in March 2020.

The euro lost ground Thursday morning against the dollar and the yen, while the greenback was stable against the Japanese currency. The yen is strengthening against most of the G10 currencies, supported by risk factors such as the Delta variant and Friday's publication of the non-farm payrolls report in the United States. According to IG, the dollar could test the threshold of 111.30 yen if the ISM services index in the United States, expected on Thursday, proves satisfactory. The dollar briefly rose to 111.17 yen in session, its highest level since March 2020.

Oil contracts gained ground on Thursday morning, continuing their advance from the day before. Nonetheless, they closed Wednesday below their session highs. Analysts largely forecast a production increase of around 500,000 barrels per day from August. By 7:30 a.m., the September contract on Brent North Sea crude was up 1 cent, at $74.64 a barrel, and the August contract on Nymex-listed light sweet crude (WTI) was up 7 cents, at $73. $.54 a barrel. By 7:30 a.m., the September contract on Brent North Sea crude was up 36 cents, at $74.64 a barrel, and the August contract on Nymex-listed light sweet crude (WTI) was up 48 cents, at 73 $.46 a barrel.