Mostly positive ending for the European stock exchanges, in line with the performance of Wall Street pending the conclusion of the Federal Reserve meeting. In Piazza Affari, the Ftse Mib closed up by 0.8% to 26,835 points, with Amplifon (+7.2%) at the top thanks to the positive assessments of analysts following the accounts.
Money also on Mediobanca (+3.8%), after Caltagirone raised its stake to 9.9% and Unicredit (+3.8%) in the wake of the release of the quarterly report and the improvement of the targets for 2023.
On the other hand, Telecom Italia (-4.4%) fell on the eve of the Board called to evaluate the offers for the network, Saipem (-2.65%) and Stellantis (-1.9%), despite the increase in revenues in first quarter (+14%), thanks to the data on registrations in April (+23%) worse than the market.
Spotlights on the American central bank, which at 20:00 Italian time will announce a rate increase of 25 basis points. Traders will be listening closely to President Jerome Powell’s words to see if this could be the latest tightening in the monetary tightening cycle.
From the macro agenda came the April ADP data on jobs in the private sector, clearly higher than expected (296,000 units against 150,000 expected), testifying to the resilience of the labor market, awaiting Friday’s job report. The ISM services index for April stood at 51.9 points.
Meanwhile, concerns over the debt ceiling remain in the US, following indications from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen that the US could run out of liquidity by early June.
On US bonds, yields fell slightly on all maturities of the curve, with the ten-year bond at 3.37% and the two-year bond at 3.93%. The Btp-Bund spread is reduced to 187 bp, with the Italian 10-year bond at 4.12%. On Forex, the dollar fell against the main currencies, with the euro/dollar at 1.105. Finally, among raw materials, oil (Brent) travels weakening to 72 dollars a barrel, with the prospect of a recession in the United States threatening fuel demand.