Beginning of the week with the handbrake on for Piazza Affari which sees the streak of nine consecutive sessions up. The Ftse Mib closed trading down by 0.76% to 26,448 points. The weak feedback from China and the rapid spread of infections in Japan, China and also in the USA contributed today to push sales on the markets after a full first half of August. On the macro side, industrial production increased 6.4% yoy in July and retail sales grew 8.5% yoy in the same month, both lower than expected. A slowdown resulting from the tightening of mobility restrictions by the second world economy to counter the advance of the Delta variant of Covid-19. Market sentiment is also affected by the collapse of the Afghan government after the Taliban insurgents took control of the capital Kabul.
Good news for Italy instead. According to the latest Bloomberg survey, economists see Italian GDP mark the best year in terms of economic growth since the distant 1970s with + 5.6% compared to 2020 levels, equal to 0.6 percentage points compared to the previous one. poll. A growth rate that Italy has not seen since the late 1970s.
This week the spotlight is on Jerome Powell’s speech on tomorrow’s agenda and on Wednesday’s minute Fed. According to reports from the Wall Street Journal, Fed officials are considering concluding asset purchases by mid-2022 if the economic recovery continues.
Among the big companies in Piazza Affari, the drops in the oil sector stand out with ENI down by 1.39% to € 10.37, among the worst in the entire Ftse Mib together with Tenaris (-2.25%) and Saipem (- 2.36%). The sales were driven by the weakness of oil on the back of the prospects of a weakening of energy demand. Today’s weak Chinese data (industrial production and retail sales below expectations in July) and the extension of restrictions in Japan (the world‘s fourth largest crude oil importer) add to the indications of last week with the International Agency for the Energy (IEA) which reported how growing demand for oil reversed course in July and now expects it to increase at a slower pace in the remainder of 2021.
Several cyclical stocks also hurt with substantial drops for CNH (-1.87%) and Stellantis (-1.44%). To complete the Agnelli galaxy’s bad day, the drop of almost 1% of the holding Exor. Moncler is also bad today (-1.97%) which conforms to the bad day of the European luxury sector which is very exposed to Chinese demand.