Down session for the European stock exchanges and for Piazza Affari, in a climate of risk aversion. The Ftse Mib closed down by 1.55% to 27,282 points, held back above all by Finecobank (-4.6%), Bper (-4.5%), Prysmian (-4.3%) and Cnh (-3 .9%). Buzzi Unicem (+3%), Leonardo (+2.85%) and Italgas (+1.65%) went against the trend.
Meanwhile, Wall Street travels little moved after the sell-off of the previous session triggered by the turmoil in the financial sector. The consequences of the SVB case, the Silicon Valley bank which yesterday announced a capital increase of over 2 billion dollars to cover portfolio losses, add to the doubts about the next monetary policy moves.
Today’s data on the US labor market highlighted the creation of 311,000 new jobs, higher than expected, but also an unemployment rate rising to 3.6% and wage growth slowing down.
A conflicting set of numbers, which leaves much uncertainty about the extent of the next rate hike by the Federal Reserve. The data on US inflation coming out next week will therefore be decisive.
In Europe, the spotlights are already on the ECB, which will meet on Thursday and will raise the cost of money by 50 basis points. It will be necessary to understand whether Lagarde and colleagues will leave the door open to other restrictive measures in May and in subsequent meetings.
The climate of aversion to risk triggered bond purchases, pushing yields down. Among US Treasuries, the two-year bond falls to 4.72% and the ten-year bond shrinks to 3.76%. The Btp-Bund spread widens over 181 basis points, with Italian paper down to 4.32%.
On Forex, the euro/dollar exchange rate rose to 1.066 and the dollar/yen depreciated to 135.2 following US data and the confirmation of the Bank of Japan’s accommodative monetary policy at the last meeting led by Kuroda. Lastly, among raw materials, oil (Brent) rose close to 83 dollars a barrel.