Closing up for Milan and the other stock exchanges of the Old Continent after the losses of the previous session, thanks also to the rebound of Wall Street.
In Piazza Affari, the Ftse Mib ended trading up 0.7% at 25,775 points. Fly Saipem (+8.6%) after the award of two offshore contracts for a total amount of approximately 900 million dollars. Iveco (+3.95%), Unicredit (+2.3%) and Generali (+2.2%) also performed well. Amplifon below par (-2.7%), on which Equita cut the target price from 31 to 29 euro, confirming the Hold rating. Intesa Sanpaolo (-1.9%), A2A (-1.8%) and Diasorin (-1.7%) also fell.
On bonds, the Btp-Bund spread widens to 179 basis points, with the Italian ten-year yield rising to 3.96% after Christine Lagarde’s rather restrictive comments.
The president of the ECB, speaking today at the Davos forum, reiterated that the necessary will be done against inflation and that the ECB will “maintain the course” of monetary policy. Kristalina Georgieva, director of the International Monetary Fund, recalled that caution is needed even if the prospects for the world economy have improved, also due to the uncertainty on the evolution of inflation.
It should be noted that today the Bank of Italy, in the Quarterly Economic Bulletin, raised the estimate of Italian GDP for 2023 to 0.6%, from the 0.3% indicated in the forecast last October
During the week, attention was also focused on the words of Fed officials, ahead of the communications blackout period that will last until the January 31 – February 1 meeting. Patrick Harker of the Philadelphia Fed reiterated his opinion of raising interest rates by 25 basis points to just above 5%.
Central bank vice president Lael Brainard (considered dovish) said rates would need to stay elevated for some time to further cool inflation. In recent days James Bullard (of St. Louis) has drafted a forecast for a target range of rates between 5.25% and 5.5% by the end of this year.
Meanwhile, today’s housing data showed that US existing home sales fell in December at the slowest pace in more than a decade, ending one of the worst years on record for the housing market.
Euro/dollar essentially stable at 1.084 and oil still in progress, with Brent returning close to 87 dollars a barrel, in the wake of China’s recovery prospects. JPMorgan raised its estimates of the country’s oil demand growth, saying it would reopen sooner and faster than initially expected.