First glimpses of the last session of the week with European markets rising slightly after the sell-off on the eve of the new worsening of geopolitical tensions. The Ftse Mib marks + 0.36% at 26,764 points. US President Joe Biden said that the risk of an invasion of Ukraine by Russia is “very high” and that an attack could take place in the next few days, under the pretext of “a false flag operation”. Today Biden will take stock of the situation with NATO, which has already expressed several reservations about the alleged withdrawal of Russian troops from the border. On the monetary front, speculation on the Federal Reserve’s strategy continues. St. Louis Fed Chairman James Bullard reiterated his support for a 100 basis point hike in the cost of borrowing by July to stem inflation and his Cleveland counterpart Loretta Mester said the pace di increases are expected to be faster than in previous rounds of monetary tightening.
Among the blue chips of Piazza Affari today the spotlight is on ENI (+ 0.8% to 13.44 euros) which reported quarterly profits beyond expectations (adj net profit of 2.11 billion, Bloomberg consensus was 1.91 billion) . Adjusted net profit for the whole of 2021 amounted to € 4.7 billion in 2021, the highest since 2012, due to the operating performance, the better results of equity investments and the significant recovery of the upstream scenario “, while the adjusted Ebit reaches 9.7 billion (with an increase of 7.8 billion compared to 2020, + 400%). The 2021 dividend proposal of € 0.86 is confirmed. new strategic plan.
Stellantis recovered today (+ 0.77%) after the weakness of the eve of the day. Among the utilities, Italagas did well at + 0.99%. On the other hand, Prysmian is struggling (-0.79%) which has finalized the purchase of the Brayton point (Massachusetts) site for the construction of the new submarine cable plant in the USA.