Opening with little movement for Piazza Affari and the other European stock exchanges, with the Ftse Mib practically unchanged (-0.05%) at 24,719 points. Money above all on A2A (+1.4%), Poste Italiane (+0.7%) and Ferrari (+0.6%), while Saipem (-1.05%), Diasorin (-0.9%) lost ground ) and Amplifon (-0.8%).
Off the core listing, MPS (flat) has announced that Fitch Ratings has improved its ratings, taking its Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (‘IDR’) to ‘B+’ from ‘B’ and its Viability Rating (VR) to ‘B+’ from ‘B’. The outlook improves from ‘evolving’ to ‘stable’.
Cautious session in Asia, conditioned by the increase in Covid cases in China which further distances hopes for a full reopening of the region’s first economy. Probable low volumes today also in Europe, coinciding with the half-service day on Wall Street (yesterday shut down for the Thanksgiving holiday), which closes early today at 1pm New York time. Focus on Black Friday performance, an important test for sales ahead of the Christmas period.
The macro agenda highlights the upward revision of German GDP in the third quarter (+0.4% quarter-on-quarter against the +0.3% of the previous estimate), thanks to solid consumer spending, while Tokyo’s inflation ( core data at 3.6%) recorded the highest growth rate in the last 40 years, largely exceeding the Bank of Japan’s inflation target, which continues to maintain an accommodative monetary policy.
Despite today’s rise (Wti +1% to 78.7 dollars), crude oil prices are about to end the third consecutive week down, in the wake of recession fears and EU discussions on a price cap for Russian oil higher than expected.
In the background, operators continue to monitor the indications coming from the central banks, after the release of the minutes of the Fed and the ECB. Yesterday Isabel Schnabel, the German economist among the most hawkish exponents of the Eurotower Governing Council, dampened hopes for a slowdown in interest rate tightening, as “incoming data suggest that there is still room to slow down the pace of adjustments limited, even if we are approaching the ‘neutral’ rate”.