Piazza Affari opens the week in red. The Ftse Mib index dropped 1.5% to 25,324 points. Among the worst are the banks with about -2.5% for Unicredit, Bper and Banco Bpm. The ceo of Banco BPM; Giuseppe Castagna, remarked in an interview with Corriere that he had never talked to Unicredit about a possible merger since the new CEO Orcel is in Piazza Gae Aulenti. Limits drops DiaSorin (-0.24%) which launched the new Simplexa ™ COVID-19 & Flu A / B Direct test in countries that accept CE marking. The test allows the qualitative identification and in vitro differentiation of RNA segments of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza A and B viruses.
Driving negativity in the markets are concerns about China as Evergrande drops further (another -14% today) and contagion concerns rise, with other real estate names in the spotlight as potential backlash victims.
Spotlight on the Federal Reserve this week. The US central bank will announce its monetary policy decision on Wednesday evening, followed by a press conference by Governor Jerome Powell. The Fed could clarify its intentions in terms of tapering, or the gradual reduction of bond purchases, even if the economic indicators of the last few weeks, especially on inflation, could encourage it to postpone any announcement to the next meeting. In addition to the Fed, meetings of other central banks are scheduled in the coming days, including that of Japan, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Norway. The latter could therefore be the first bank to raise the benchmark interest rate since the start of the coronavirus.