Upward day for Piazza Affari and the other European stock exchanges, after the declines the day before triggered by worse-than-expected US inflation. The Ftse Mib ends with an increase of 0.6% to 31,329 points, with Leonardo at the top (+6.1%) after NATO’s declarations according to which the majority of members will reach their defense spending targets.
Also highlighted are Interpump (+5.3%) in the wake of the results and Nexi (+4.2%), which is reportedly negotiating with F2i for the interbank network and has already rejected an initial offer of 800 million. However, Pirelli (-1.2%) and Bper (-1.1%) were subdued.
The spotlight is also on Telecom Italia (+1.9%) on the day of the Board of Directors’ meeting for the approval of the accounts, while Reuters reports that the EU regulator would like to “ease” the rules on mergers for mobile telecommunications.
During the day, the second reading of Eurozone GDP for the fourth quarter was released, which was stagnant on a quarterly basis, as expected. In the United Kingdom, inflation showed stable annual growth at 4% and a decline of 0.6% between December and January, better than consensus.
Meanwhile, ECB Vice President De Guindos reiterated caution about rate cuts, stating that we must not give in to the temptation to proceed too soon.
On bonds, the BTP-Bund spread contracted to 151 bp, with the yield on the Italian 10-year bond at 3.86% and that of the Bund at 2.35%, while the 10-year US Treasury stood at 4.28%.
Among raw materials, Brent oil fluctuates around $82.7 a barrel, after the higher-than-expected increase in US crude oil inventories emerged from weekly EIA data.
On the Forex, the euro/dollar exchange rate trades just above 1.07 and the dollar/yen strengthens further to 150.6, raising concerns from the Japanese authorities over the weakness of the local currency.