Opening on the rise for Piazza Affari: the bankers are doing well, the spread is decreasing
Opening up for Piazza Affari, aligned with the others European squares. In the first stages the Ftse Mib marks a progress of around 1%. Up 0.6% the Dax of Frankfurt and the Cac40 of the Paris Stock Exchange. In London the Ftse 100 salt by 0.63%. Declining closure for Asian markets, with Tokyo closed for holidays. Among the titles stands out the rise of banks with Mps e Bper. In progress of more than 2% also Tim. Spreads down at the opening, to 188 basis points.
Wall Street eats the Apple
With the market closed, Apple has communicated the data for the second quarter of the fiscal year. Profit was $24.16 billion, two more than analysts had expected. Revenue fell 3% year over year to $94.8 billion, but expectations were lower at $93.3 billion. In the press release, the chief financial officer Luca Maestri states that the business trend has improved, the operating cash generated was equal to 28.6 billion dollars. “Given our confidence in Apple’s future and stock value, the board has authorized an additional $90 billion in stock repurchases”. The regional banks in particular are under pressure.
Troubled banks
PacWest lost 50% while Western Alliance it dropped more than 38% after rumors that institutions are considering strategic options including a possible sale. The crash comes a day after the Fed hiked the rates of others 25 basis points and signaled plans to keep them up for a while.
Powell and Lagarde have talked. No surprise
The appointment with the central banks did not produce major changes because most of the changes had been correctly discounted by the market. More significant effects on gold which has pushed itself into the area of historical highs.
Wall Street closed yesterday lower (S&P500 -0.7%, 4,061 points), bringing the week’s interim balance to around -2.0%/-2.60%.
The lifesaver for US banks
Two innovations that brought some relief
1) The FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) plans to hit the big banks with ad hoc commissions to flesh out the deposit insurance fund, leaving smaller institutions exempt. According to Websim analysts it would be an excellent choice, also because there is the suspicion that it is precisely the big banks that play against the small ones or, in the best of cases, that do nothing at all to demonstrate that the small ones are sound;
2) The American Bankers Association has urged federal regulators to investigate a wave of significant short selling of bank stocks that it says are “disconnected from underlying financial realities.” In a letter to SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, the advocacy group said it has also observed “extensive social media engagement” over the health of various banks that is out of step with overall industry conditions. “We urge the SEC to consider all existing tools and take steps to reduce the chances of abusive trading practices and restore investor confidence,” the group said. Recall that the ABA includes banks of all sizes and other institutions that together account for more than 95% of the industry’s $13.5 trillion assets and employ more than 2 million people.