The day ends under the banner of purchases for the stock exchanges of the Old Continent, while Wall Street continues its upward session. On Piazza Affari, the Ftse Mib ended up 0.84% at 30,350.53 points, with Bper (+3.7%), STM (+3.4%) and UniCredit (+2.6%) at the top and at the bottom of the list Amplifon (-3.3%), Campari (-1.7%) and Tim (-1.4%).
On the macro side, in the USA initial requests for unemployment benefits unexpectedly decreased to 187 thousand, to the lowest levels in over a year (consensus 205 thousand units). Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said he wants to see more evidence that inflation is on track toward the 2% target and reiterated that he does not expect third-quarter rate cuts.
Returning to Europe, the minutes of the ECB meeting in December highlighted the importance of the stability of the current monetary policy for the timely achievement of the 2% inflation target.
On bonds, the BTP-Bund spread is reduced to 158 basis points, with the yield on the Italian ten-year bond at 3.89% and that of the Bund at 2.31%, while the ten-year Treasuries rise to 4.12%.
Among commodities, Brent oil rose to $78.5 a barrel after the IEA joined OPEC in predicting relatively strong growth in demand globally this year, with a boost to prices also resulting from disruptions to US production and geopolitical risks in the Middle East.
On Forex, the euro/dollar exchange rate was little changed at 1.087 while the dollar/yen was flat at 148.05.