(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) – European stock exchanges start sharply in the week which should see the Federal Reserve raise the cost of borrowing by 50 basis points in the US and other central banks, starting with the Bank of England, adjust interest rates higher. The further signs of a slowdown in the Chinese economy (with the SME indices released over the weekend indicating a manufacturing sector contracting in April), the lockdowns in China to contain the rise in Covid cases and the Ukrainian crisis without solutions fuel the discontent stock markets after Friday’s steep decline on Wall Street.
London Stock Exchange closed for holidays as well as Moscow (also stops on Tuesday), in Asia sitting without exchanges for Hong Kong and Shanghai (also stops on 3 and 4). In the first four months of 2022, the Stoxx Europe 600 lost 7.7%, Piazza Affari 11.3%, the worst performance among the main lists next to Frankfurt.
The macro week opens with data relating to the manufacturing PMI of Japan, Italy, France, Germany, Eurozone. Retail sales in Germany are also on the agenda, the
unemployment in Italy and economic confidence in the Eurozone. From the United States, Markit manufacturing PMI, construction spending and the ISM manufacturing index are arriving. A speech by Georgieva from the IMF is expected. The EU Council of Ministers is held in Brussels
transport, telecommunications and energy. The Council of Ministers is expected in Rome for the new decree on energy and aid to families and businesses. For finance, Italgas quarterly e
Piaggio.
Of course, the increases of the European stock exchanges in the last session of last week and of the month were not enough to bring the balance back to the eighth (-1% Euro Stoxx), nor that of April (-2.1% ). Concerns about an imminent and more aggressive crackdown on the part of central banks and fears about the inflation rush have weighed, but above all the fear of the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine and the repercussions on growth, on gas supplies. and oil and prices. These fears have not left the markets since the beginning of the conflict, last February 24: from the Russian invasion to today, the Euro Stoxx has lost 3.4%.
It did not go better in Piazza Affari, which closed the session on Friday with an increase of 0.82%, but in the eighth it recorded a decrease of 0.1% for the Ftse Mib, with the monthly decline at -3.1 % and that from the beginning of the conflict to -6.6% (-11.3% from the beginning of the year). The rest of the Old Continent is also the same: Paris 0.7% in the week, -8.7% since the beginning of the year and -3.6% since the beginning of the war, Frankfurt -0.3% in the 5 days, -11.2% in 2022 and -3.6% since the beginning of the invasion, and Madrid -0.8% in the eighth and -1.5% since the beginning of the year. Slightly better London, which finished the week up 0.3% and gains 0.6% since the beginning of the conflict