Another declining closing for European stock markets, despite the slightly positive trend on Wall Street. On Piazza Affari, the Ftse Mib ended down 0.7% at 28,382 points, with Amplifon (-3.9%) bringing up the rear after the start of an antitrust investigation into the hearing aid sector. Nexi (-3.7%) and Telecom Italia (-3.2%) also fell, while Banco Bpm (+2%), Iveco (+0.9%) and Mps (+0.9%) closed on the rise. ), with banks partially supported by the revision of the tax on extra profits.
Focus of the day on Christine Lagarde’s speech to the European Parliament. The president of the ECB reiterated her commitment to keeping rates at restrictive levels for long enough to bring inflation back towards the 2% target in the medium term. Meanwhile, anticipation is growing for Friday’s data on consumer prices in the eurozone.
From the macro agenda came the German Ifo index, which highlighted a slight improvement in prospects, with the related indicator from 82.7 to 82.9 points.
Meanwhile, negative real estate news continues to pour in from China, with Evergrande announcing that it will default on principal and interest payments on a 4 billion yuan onshore bond.
Among raw materials, oil (Brent) falls below 92 dollars a barrel, while on Forex, the euro/dollar drops to 1.059.
In the bond sector, the BTP-Bund spread widened to 185 basis points, with the Italian ten-year bond rising to 4.64%.