Black Friday for Piazza Affari which ends a week in great difficulty that has been conditioned by the fear that the aggressive rate hikes by the Fed will go on for a long time, leading to a recession seen by many as inevitable. In addition to the thud in shares, the sell-off on bonds was confirmed today with two-year Treasuries reaching 4.2% (top since 2007), while Italian 10-year BTPs went up to 4.25 % (new highs from 2013) also in view of the appointment of the Italian political elections on Sunday 25 September.
Also fueling the negative sentiment in Europe was the return of PMI with that relating to the services sector falling to a low of 19 months and that of the manufacturing sector to a lows of 27 months. Business activity contracted throughout the third quarter. “This confirms our view that the recession may have already begun,” the experts at Ing say that at the same time, the August rise in energy prices is translating into greater pressure on prices.
The Ftse Mib, already back from more than -1% on the eve, lost 3.36% at the closing to 21,066 points. Among the big names in Piazza Affari, significant reductions for Banco BPM (-4.42%) and Intesa (-4.75%). Down also Unicredit (-4.02%) recovering from the rally on the eve with the words of the CEO Orcel on the upward revision of the 2023 guidance that pushed the stock to its highs at almost 7 months.
Among the worst also the oil stocks: Tenaris (-8.31%) and Eni (-4.74%) with oil prices slipping back by about 6% on the lows since January thanks to recessive fears.