In equities, Walgreens Boots shares are down, dropping 7.3% on Friday after Rosalind ‘Roz’ Brewer stepped down as the company’s chief executive officer. Brewer also left the board of directors, effective immediately. Brewer had headed the company since March 2021, when she took over from Stefano Pessina, in office for six years and then moved on to the role of executive chairman of the Board. He also loses the stock of Nvidia Corp, which the previous week recorded three consecutive record closures, for a market capitalization above 1.2 trillion dollars. He shares jumped on Airbnb after the S&P Dow Jones Indices announced on Friday that the company’s short-term rental stock would enter the S&P 500 on Sept. 18. He earns the title in private equity firm Blackstone, which itself will enter the S&P 500 in two weeks. The two companies will take over from Lincoln National and Newell Brands, which are traveling in the red.
Mps recovers in Milan, weak banks
In Piazza Affari, attention remains focused on the banks and in particular on Banca Mps, in view of a sale of capital by the Treasury, in order to also respect the agreements made with Brussels, which provide for the exit of the ministry by June 2024. The timing and modalities, however, still appear uncertain, especially after the conflicting declarations among the ministers. Giancarlo Giorgetti has in fact made it clear that “the times will be decided by his ministry according to market conditions”, as a question and answer to the statements with which the deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, also supported by the minister Adolfo Urso, instead, he had opened up the possibility that the Italian government could speed up the sale of the stake in the Sienese bank. The fact is that for now no institution has come forward for a possible merger, so the market continues to fear that in the end the shares will be sold on the stock exchange. Hypothesis that made the quotations capitulate on the eve. MPS aside, discounts for Banco Bpm, Banca Pop Er, Intesa Sanpaolo and Unicredit. Mediobancas, on the other hand, rose, while a thousand hypotheses are circulating about the renewal of the board which will take place during the meeting of 28 October. Meanwhile, the board has announced that it will file its own list of candidates and make it public at least 30 days before the meeting.
On the main list, Leonardo – Finmeccanica moved upwards with the best performance of the Ftse Mib, continuing on the upward path that is pushing it towards the values of 2017: the company benefits from a whirlwind of hypotheses according to which the CEO, Roberto Cingolani , aims to “increase Leonardo’s weight in the more competitive and hi-tech sectors, in particular the manufacturing of satellites with Thales Alenia Space Italia and services with Telespazio”, as reported in recent days by Il Sole 24 Ore. Oil shares then moved up, from Eni, to Saipem, to Tenaris, benefiting from the performance of crude oil. The Prysmian’s did well, being awarded for a new project in Australia. Moncler, on the other hand, has felt the luxury of fears that the Chinese economy is slacking off. The spotlights also remained focused on the shares of Telecom Italia (unchanged), pending the spin-off of the network. By the end of the month, Kkr will have to submit a binding offer to take over 65% of Netco. The MEF will also enter the company, which has already committed to spending up to 2.2 billion. Sum that will draw from the Heritage and Relaunch fund. The F2i fund and perhaps Tim herself should also be in the match. It remains to be seen what the position of the shareholder of the telecommunications company, Vivendi, will be. Diasorin and Erg also performed badly. Out of the main basket, Visibilia Editore flew by more than 10%.
Commerzbank down in Frankfurt, Barclays cuts rating
Commerzbank falls sharply on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange after the downgrade by Barclays analysts. Barclays experts downgraded their advice on Commerzbank from equal weight to underweight, reducing the price target from €12.50 to €10.80. Analysts of the British bank expect in particular a disappointing trend for Commerzbank’s net interest margin and believe that overall there are significant risks weighing on market estimates. According to some operators, however, the lowering of the recommendation by Barclays alone is not enough to explain the clear drop in the share, which has fallen below the 10 euro threshold. The contained level of transactions would also weigh, which amplifies price fluctuations and also automated sales flows linked to the 10 euro threshold.
Euro at three-month low against the dollar
On the foreign exchange market, weak Chinese and European data brought back purchases on the dollar, which rose to its highest level in three months against the euro. «The euro/dollar exchange rate has dropped below 1.08, a level which if not recovered quickly would project the exchange rate towards
the subsequent support 1.07», say the Mps analysts. On the other hand, the Australian dollar was down, «given the close relationship with the Chinese economy and after the Australian Central Bank left rates unchanged, as expected, to assess the impact on the economy of the cycle of hikes accomplished so far . This move – explained by Mps – was interpreted as the probable conclusion of the cycle of increases”.