Sitting without a precise direction for the continental stock exchanges and for Piazza Affari. The Ftse Mib ends just above parity (+0.2%) at 25,884 points, with purchases above all on bank Intesa Sanpaolo (+2.05%), Unicredit (+1.5%), Bper (+1.4% ) and Banco Bpm (+1.3%). On the other hand, Finecobank (-1.3%) and the oil companies decreased, with Saipem (-3.35%), Eni (-1.5%) and Tenaris (-1.3%) due to the drop in crude oil.
Brent crude was down 1.9% to $86.5 a barrel, ahead of the release of the API’s weekly data on US inventories. On Forex, the euro/dollar remains just below 1.09 while on bonds the Btp-Bund spread is reduced to 175 basis points, with the yield on the Italian 10-year bond around 3.9%.
During the day, the member of the ECB governing council Fabio Panetta spoke, stating that the monetary tightening of the Eurotower does not represent a source of risk for Italy. Panetta added that the ECB’s approach is data-driven and will be reassessed in March.
As regards the macroeconomic agenda, the preliminary January PMIs of the main countries were released today. In the Eurozone, estimates highlighted a marginal growth in economic activity after six months of decline, exceeding analysts’ expectations, with the composite index at 50.2 points. In the USA, on the other hand, commercial activity contracted for the seventh month, albeit at a more moderate pace.
Meanwhile Wall Street continues little move after a momentary technical problem at the Nyse that has stopped many stocks due to volatility. Focus above all on the quarterly reports, waiting for the Microsoft accounts to be released tonight.
Meanwhile, geopolitical tensions are also returning to the fore. According to rumors, the Biden administration has found evidence of war aid to Russia from Chinese state-owned companies and is investigating whether the Beijing government was aware of it.