The stock markets expected to fall after Wall Street's sharp decline. The Eurostoxx 50 opened at 4,048.08 points (-0.79%), the CAC 40 at 6,520.01 points (-0.62%), the DAX 40 at 15,260.69 points (-0.68%), the FTSE 100 at 7,086.42 points (-0.31%), the SMI at 11,642.45 points (+0.12%), the AEX at 771.94 points (-0.50%), the BEL 20 at 4,158.89 points (+0.80%), the IBEX 35 at 8,796.30 points (-0.94%), the DJIA  at 33,843.92 points (-1.59%), the Nasdaq at 14,448.58 points (-0.44%), the S&P 500 at 4,307.54 points (-1.19%) and the Nikkei 225 at 28,805.22 points down 2.20%.

As regarding the exchange rate, the change from the close in New York indicates that EUR/USD opens at 1.1579 (-0.01%), EUR/JPY at 128.71 (-0.10%) and USD/JPY at 111.16 down 0.11%.

The banking group Crédit Agricole SA said Thursday evening that it was in discussions with the Moroccan investment company Holmarcom to sell its subsidiary Crédit du Maroc, confirming "market rumors". These discussions are at a preliminary stage without any certainty as to the materialization of a sale of the Moroccan subsidiary, Crédit Agricole SA said in a statement. The real estate group Icade announced Thursday evening that market conditions did not allow it to carry out the planned IPO of its subsidiary Icade Santé.

European equity markets are expected to open sharply lower on Friday, in the wake of Wall Street's sharp decline for the last session of September, which was the worst month for the S&P 500 index since March 2020. At 7:25 a.m., the CAC 40 futures contract lost 81.5 points, or 1.3%, according to data from broker IG Markets. The DAX contract was down 206 points, or 1.4%, and the FTSE 100 contract was down 77.2 points, or 1.1%. On the data front, attention will be on Friday on the manufacturing PMI indices of the France, Germany and the euro zone, as well as the provisional estimate of inflation in the euro zone. In the United States, investors will focus on household income and spending, along with the PCE index, followed by manufacturing PMIs and ISM and the University of Michigan's Household Confidence Survey. The New York Stock Exchange ended sharply lower on Thursday for the last session of September and posted its worst monthly performance since March 2020, as economic uncertainties dampen investors.

For the month of September as a whole, the Dow Jones Index lost 4.2% and the Nasdaq Index fell 5.2%, marking their biggest monthly decline since March 2020 and the outbreak of the health crisis. Both indices also posted declines of 0.5% and 2.3% over the entire third quarter. In Congress, both chambers managed to avoid a paralysis of the federal administrations by voting in extremis a new finance law that extends the current budget until 3 December. By a comfortable majority, U.S. senators had approved Thursday morning the temporary budget, which was then passed, shortly before the close of Wall Street, by the House of Representatives. The bill was signed into law Thursday night by President Biden. The passage of this law prevented all funding for federal services from being suddenly cut on Friday and hundreds of thousands of employees from being laid off.

In China, financial markets are closed for the "golden week" corresponding to the national holiday, starting this Friday. Markets are also closed in Hong Kong for the day. In Tokyo, the Nikkei index lost 2.2% at the end of the session.

The yield on the ten-year U.S. Treasury bond rose 0.085 percentage points in the third quarter to 1.528%, recording its biggest gain since March in September, although Thursday's decline ended a seven-session series of progression. The yield on the benchmark U.S. bond rose further thanks to portfolio adjustments after the Fed signaled that tapering would begin in the fourth quarter.

The euro is stable Friday morning against the dollar but gives up some ground against the yen, like the greenback. Conditions are in place for the dollar to appreciate, while the Japanese and European currencies are expected to come under pressure, Bruce Clark, a currency and rates analyst at IGM, told the Wall Street Journal.

Oil contracts are down Friday morning. According to ANZ Research, the next meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) on Monday will be decisive for the direction of crude oil prices next week. At 7:30 a.m., the December Contract for North Sea Brent lost 11 cents to $78.20 a barrel. The November contract for light sweet crude (WTI) listed on the Nymex was down 12 cents, at $74.91 a barrel.