Uncertain day for the European stock exchanges, while Wall Street continues mixed. In Piazza Affari, the Ftse Mib closed up by 0.2% to 27,179 points, supported by oil companies Saipem (+4.3%), Eni (+4.1%) and Tenaris (+3%), as well as Unicredit ( +3%), while Iveco (-2.7%), Mps (-1.8%) and Prysmian (-1.8%) fell back.
Oil prices are flying, with Brent (+6%) at 84.8 dollars a barrel, after a surprise cut in production of over one million barrels a day by OPEC+.
St. Louis Fed Chairman James Bullard spoke of an unexpected move that could complicate the central bank’s task of fighting inflation.
From the macro agenda came the data on the ISM manufacturing index, which fell to 46.3 in March, one of the worst readings since 2009 (excluding the pandemic).
The manufacturing sector also deteriorated in the Eurozone, with the PMI index down to 47.3 points.
Meanwhile, ECB Governing Council member Holzmann opened up the possibility of a new rate hike of 50 basis points.
Spread Btp-Bund up to 184 basis points, while the Italian 10-year bond falls to 4.08% in a context of decreasing returns. On Forex, the euro/dollar trades up to 1.089 and the dollar/yen falls to 132.3.