Closing above parity for most European stock exchanges, with the Ftse Mib of Piazza Affari increasing by 0.4% to 30,569 points. Amplifon performed well (+3.4%), after the upgrade to ‘overweight’ by Morgan Stanley, with target price raised from 30 to 35 euros. Pirelli (+3%) and Moncler (+2.5%) also stand out, while oil sector stocks retreat in the wake of the sharp drop in oil prices, with Saipem (-3.9%), Eni (-3%) and Tenaris (-2.1%) bringing up the rear.
Meanwhile, Eni has successfully placed a 1 billion ten-year fixed rate bond with institutional investors, with orders more than 5 times higher.
Eurozone data on retail sales (-0.3% m/m and -1.1% y/y in November) and consumer confidence (improving to -15 points in December) were released during the day ), after the German ones on factory orders (+0.3%, below expectations) and trade balance (export +3.7% cyclical, import +1.9%).
During the week, attention will focus above all on US inflation (Thursday), the speeches of various central bankers from the Fed and the ECB and on the start of the new quarterly reporting season in the US, with the first results of the banking giants.
On bonds, the BTP-Bund spread contracts slightly to 167 basis points, with the yield on the Italian 10-year bond at 3.79% and that of the Bund at 2.13%.
Among commodities, Brent oil lost nearly 4% to $75.8 a barrel after Saudi Arabia cut official selling prices for all regions in a sign of a weakening global market.
On Forex, the euro/dollar appreciates to 1.097 and the dollar/yen slips below 144.