Piazza Affari achieved one of the best performances today among the European stock exchanges, with the Ftse Mib rising by 1.06% to 29,688 points, on the day of the quarterly review which will become effective from 18 December.
Buys in particular on Stellantis (+5.25%), cited as “best in class” by JPMorgan and driven by General Motors’ rise on Wall Street, after the latter increased its dividend by 33% and announced the largest buyback ever ($10 billion).
MPS (+3.85%), BPER (+3.2%) and STM (+2.9%) also did well, while Campari fell back (-2.4%), on which JPMorgan cut its recommendation from neutral to underweight and the target price from 11 to 8.3 euros.
Market sentiment was positively influenced by the higher-than-estimated upward revision of the US annualized GDP, which grew by 5.2%. The PCE (Personal Consumers Expenditures) price index decreased to 2.8%. The Fed’s Beige Book is expected tonight, while tomorrow the core PCE deflator for October will be published, a key measure used by the central bank to track inflation.
In Europe, German inflation fell more than expected, to 3.2% per year (2.3% on a harmonized basis). Even in Spain, the growth in consumer prices cooled to 3.2%, awaiting tomorrow’s data on Italy and the Eurozone. Furthermore, the OECD published the economic outlook for the region.
Key week also with regards to the interventions of monetary policy officials. After Christopher Waller’s openness to a rate cut in the first half of 2024, today came the opinion of Thomas Barkin of the Richmond Fed, according to which the Fed should keep the possibility of raising rates on the table of interest in the event that inflation proves to be persistent. Chairman Jerome Powell is scheduled to speak on Friday.
The decline in inflation favors the expectation of a soft landing and facilitates a decline in bond yields. The BTP-Bund spread stood at 174 basis points, with the yield on the Italian 10-year bond falling to 4.16%.
On the Forex, the euro/dollar reverses course and falls to 1.096 while the dollar/yen travels little changed at 147.3. Among raw materials, Brent oil fluctuates around $82 per barrel, awaiting the OPEC+ meeting tomorrow, November 30th.