A day marked by sales for European stocks as Wall Street deteriorates after a declining start and reaches intraday lows. In Piazza Affari, the Ftse Mib closed down by 1.3% to 28,974 points, with sales above all on Nexi (-2.9%), Bper (-2.7%) on the day of the Board of Directors on accounts, A2A ( -2.3%) and Hera (-2.3%). On the shields Iveco Group (+8.7%), after the increase in the guidance for the full year, followed by Prysmian (+1.7%) and Amplifon (+1.6%).
Overseas, the Nasdaq slipped to -1.9% and the S&P500 to -1.1%, in the aftermath of the rating downgrade by Fitch and after today’s data on employment in the private sector.
The US has lost its triple A rating, but according to most analysts the agency’s decision should not have significant repercussions on the demand for US debt. Meanwhile, ADP data highlighted 324,000 new jobs, well above expectations, once again underlining the strength of the stars and stripes job market. The expectation is therefore growing for Friday’s job report, which will follow the key quarterly reports of Apple and Amazon by one day, due out on Thursday with the markets closed.
On a day lacking in macroeconomic cues, in Italy the Parliamentary Budget Office has released updated estimates on the Italian GDP, raising the growth forecast to 1% (+0.1%) for this year and revising downwards that for 2024 to +1.1% (-0.3%).
On Forex, the euro/dollar slipped to 1.094 and the dollar/yen returned to 143.3. Among commodities, crude oil (Brent) fell 2% to 83 dollars a barrel, held back by risk aversion, while US inventories recorded a record drop of more than 17 million barrels in the last week.
On bonds, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose 10 basis points to 4.1% after the US Treasury announced a bond offering of 103 billion dollars, more than expected, in next week’s auctions. The Btp-Bund spread stands at 164 bp with the Italian 10-year bond over 4.18%.