Misstep today for Piazza Affari thanks to the growing tensions between the West and Russia. In fact, fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine are growing with Russian-backed rebels and Ukrainian forces exchanging fire on each other along the border in what Western officials have described as a possible pretext created by Moscow for to invade.
US President Joe Biden said the threat of an invasion is “very high”. On the other hand, Russia expelled US Deputy Ambassador Bartle Gorman.
On the central bank front, last night’s Fed minutes indicated that inflation is no longer affecting only sectors affected by the pandemic and the US central bank considers it appropriate to significantly reduce balance sheets with some board members in favor of ending QE sooner. .
The Ftse Mib scores -1.11% at the end of the day to 26,669 points.
In Milan today the -2.83% of Tenaris stands out thanks to the drop in oil prices that have obscured the initial driving effect given to the stock by the quarterly numbers beyond expectations. The group closed the fourth quarter of 2021 with a net profit of 336 million dollars compared to 110 million of the same period in 2020 and with revenues that grew by 82% to about 2.06 billion against 1.13 billion. a year ago (+ 17% q / t). The results are better than the Bloomberg consensus which indicated a turnover of $ 2 billion and profits of 272.8 million.
Saipem is also bad (-2.76%) with the latest rumors reported by Bloomberg that see the oil services company at work for a capital increase of 1.5 / 2 billion euros and a debt renegotiation for about 1 billion. Saipem, which will present the new plan in a month, could put drilling activities up for sale with the prospect of cashing in around 1 billion.
Banks confirm the weakness highlighted on the eve with Unicredit slipping back by about 2.7%; -1.86% for Intesa Sanpaolo and -3.98% for Bper. Among the insurance companies in decline, Generali (-1.82%) with the president Gabriele Galateri di Genola who announced that he will not be a candidate for the next board renewal.
Lastly, Stellantis was also hit by sales (-1.86%), which in January recorded a 12.4% drop in registrations of its group’s brands in Europe. Moncler decreases (-0.43%) thanks to the accounts far beyond expectations published by the French giant Kering.