Closing just above parity for the European stock exchanges, with the Ftse Mib up by 0.3% to 27,397 points. Among the companies in the main Milanese list, Amplifon (+4.1%), Campari (+3.7%) and Tenaris (+2.7%) stand out. Stm falls (-3.2%) after Tesla declared during its Investor Day that it is using fewer silicon carbide wafers in transistor packages in favor of its own internal technology. Banco Bpm (-1.4%) and Unicredit (-1.25%) also fell.
Bond yields still on the rise, after the latest macro data which have strengthened the prospect of further rate hikes by central banks. The Btp-Bund spread widens to 187 basis points with the Italian 10-year bond over 4.6%. For the first time since November, 10-year US Treasuries exceeded the 4% threshold, accelerating to 4.07% while the two-year yield travels above 4.9%.
Eurozone consumer prices recorded an 8.5% year-on-year change in February, higher than the 8.3% expected and marginally lower than January’s 8.6%. The core data, closely monitored by the ECB, even accelerated to 5.6% yoy, compared to the previous and expected 5.3%.
In Italy too, prices slowed down less than estimated (from 10% to 9.2%, from 10.7% to 9.9% on a harmonized basis) while core inflation fell from 6.0% to 6.0%. 4%.
Overall, the data of the last few days on the prices of the main European countries have prompted operators to price a further overall increase in rates of 150 basis points by the end of the year.
The minutes of the ECB were also released during the day, which confirmed the intention to further raise the cost of money. At the latest meeting, officials called concern about excessive monetary tightening “premature,” given the substantial distance from the hypothetical terminal rate.
Meanwhile, Wall Street moves mixed with the Dow Jones at +0.4%, the S&P500 at -0.2% and the Nasdaq at -0.5%), with Tesla losing more than 6 percentage points in the aftermath of the Investor Day.
US data on jobless claims were released today, down again in the past week (to 190,000) and at historically low levels, testifying to a still tight labor market that risks hindering the Fed’s efforts to contain inflation.
On Forex, the euro/dollar exchange rate returns to 1.06 after having exceeded it in recent days, while among raw materials, oil (Brent) travels upwards towards 85 dollars a barrel and gas drops below 47 euro/Mwh .