Positive ending for the European stock exchanges and for Piazza Affari, with the Ftse Mib up by 0.2% to 27,498 points. Money above all on Tenaris (+2.1%), Saipem (+1.8%), Pirelli (+1.5%) and Unicredit (+1.3%). Realizations on Iveco (-2.4%) after the rally triggered by accounts, Amplifon (-1.05%) and A2a (-0.9%) also down.
Wall Street, on the other hand, retreats, with the S&P500 at -0.9% and the Nasdaq at -0.8%, after the release of the January report on US inflation, which showed a slower slowdown than expected by analysts and markets .
In detail, consumer prices increased by 6.4% on an annual basis, compared to 6.5% in December and 6.2% expected by economists. The core figure, excluding the more volatile components represented by energy and food prices, rose by 5.6% on a trend basis, lower than the +5.7% in December but more than the +5.5% of the consensus.
The data do not noticeably change the short-term outlook on the next moves by the Fed, which should make at least two more rate hikes by 25 basis points. Richmond Fed Chairman Thomas Barkin said that if inflation persists above targets, the central bank “maybe need to do more.”
Bond yields rose, especially on short-term maturities, with the US two-year bond exceeding 4.6%. The Btp-Bund spread at 178 basis points did not move much, with the Italian ten-year yield at 4.22%.
Among currencies, the euro/dollar remains above 1.07 and the dollar/yen travels in the 133 area. In the morning, the formal appointment of Kazuo Ueda as the next governor of the Bank of Japan was announced, which increases the bets on a normalization of the institution’s monetary policy. The pound rose to $1.215 as UK wage increases fueled pressure on the Bank of England to raise rates again next month.
Oil was down with Brent at 85.2 dollars a barrel, after macro data and a report that the Biden administration intends to release more strategic reserves.