The French market is trading slightly higher on Thursday, ahead of the key interest rate decision from the European Central Bank. A rise in crude prices and low valuations, following recent losses, boosted investor sentiment in early trade.
The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks is losing 0.08 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, is gaining 0.01 percent.
The CAC 40 index opened slightly lower at 3,835. After remaining in positive territory in early trade, the index later dipped into negative territory, but is currently adding 0.04 percent.
Suez Environnement is rising 2.3 percent, reportedly on a broker upgrade. Veolia Environnement is adding 0.7 percent.
PPR is rising 0.7 percent. Barclays initaited the stock with "Overweight" rating and a price target of 136 euros.
Peugeot and Renault are advancing 1.15 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.
Lenders Credit Agricole, BNP Paribas, Societe Generale and Natixis are losing between 1 percent and 0.3 percent.
Elsewhere in Europe, the German DAX is adding 0.14 percent and the UK's FTSE 100 is adding 0.05 percent. Switzerland's SMI is losing 0.09 percent.
Across Asia/Pacific, Australia's All Ordinaries added 0.28 percent and Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 0.19 percent. China's Shanghai Composite Index and Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 1.71 percent and 0.23 percent, respectively.
In the U.S., futures point to a higher open on Wall Street. In the previous session, all the major averages closed in negative territory, although the tech-heavy Nasdaq underperformed its counterparts. The Dow edged down 0.2 percent, while the Nasdaq fell 1 percent and the S&P 500 slid 0.4 percent.
In the commodity space, crude for July delivery is rising $0.18 to $100.92 per barrel after OPEC Wednesday unexpectedly left its production quotas unchanged. Analysts had expected the 12-member group to boost production in an effort to cool off oil prices and take some pressure off the world economy. August gold is sliding $3.4 to $1535.3 a troy ounce.
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May 08, 2026 15:50 ET Manufacturing and services sector survey results and labor market data from main economies were the highlight on the economics news front this week. Factory orders and jobs report dominated the news flow in the U.S. Similarly, industrial production data from German garnered attention in Europe. In Asia, purchasing managers’ survey results from China and the central bank decision from Australia were in focus.