The recovery of the European stock exchanges lasted the space of one session, which today collapsed again. The Ftse Mib ends down by 4.6% at 25,565 points, with the banks once again under pressure in the wake of the Credit Suisse plunge (-24%).
Among the big names in Piazza Affari, Saipem (-9.9%), Unicredit (-9.1%), Tenaris (-8.95%), Finecobank (-7.6%), Bper (-7.2 %), Banco Bpm (-7.1%) and Intesa Sanpaolo (-6.85%). Campari (+0.5%) and the utilities resist, in particular Terna (+0.4%) and Erg (+0.2%), supported by the 2022 accounts and the increase in the dividend.
After the turbulence of recent days related to the bankruptcies of the US banks SVB and Signature, this time it is the Swiss Credit Suisse that catalyzes the attention of investors, after the Saudi National Bank, the largest shareholder with 9.9% of the capital, excluded new capital injections.
Bond yields were down sharply, with the ten-year BTP at 4.09% and the spread with respect to the German Bund widening to around 197 basis points on the eve of the ECB meeting, from which a rate hike of 50 basis points is expected.
Among US Treasuries, the two-year bond falls by more than 40 basis points to 3.82% and the ten-year bond down by 28 bp to 3.41%, while expectations of a 100 bp rate cut by the end of the Fed are growing .
The new case in the banking world has also fueled new sales in the sector on Wall Street, where the S&P500 is down 1.8% and the Nasdaq is down 1.1%. Before the opening, February data on producer prices were released, slowing down to 4.6% per annum, and retail sales, down by 0.4% per month.
On Forex, the dollar strengthens against the euro bringing the relative exchange rate to 1.054, while the dollar/yen depreciates to 132.7, with the Japanese currency favored by its status as a safe haven. Among raw materials, oil (Brent) sinks to 72 dollars a barrel and gold jumps to 1,933 dollars an ounce.