MILANO – 9:45 am. The rush of bond yields that triggered the sell-off of the previous sessions gives a respite to the stock markets, which have paid – especially on the tech side – the rise in bond rates. The indications of the futures looked promising, but after the first few bars the European stock exchanges moved mixed despite the good session in Asia. Milano adds 0.3%, London salt by 0.3%, Frankfurt slips by 0.04% e Paris 0.2%. Futures on Wall Street advance, after yesterday the indices paid (-0.96% the Dow and -1.15% the Nasdaq) the new rise in the ten-year T-Bond yield which touched the 1 mark, 9% for the first time in more than two years (exactly from December 2019) before falling back to 1.85%.
Government bond yields rise, the Bund returns to positive. BTPs are also in the sights waiting for bright spells on the Quirinale
by Raffaele Ricciardi
In contrast with the other central banks, the Chinese one is moving, which reduced the Loan prime rate (Lpr) by another 10 basis points, after December 5, among the preferential rates offered by commercial banks to the best customers and a reference for the rates applied to other loans. The one-year LPR, a note reads, goes from 3.80% to 3.70%, while the 5-year one drops from 4.65% to 4.60%, in what is the first intervention to be April 2020. The move, which comes as markets are betting on an accelerated tightening by the Fed to fight inflation, is linked to the scenario of a marked slowdown in the Chinese economy highlighted at the end of 2021.
The bag of Hong Kong celebrates yet another dovish move by the People’s Bank of China, with a jump of almost 3%. The rises in the shares of companies active in the construction and real estate market are highlighted. Sunac and Shimao jump over 10%, Country Garden rallies 7%. A leap also for hi-tech stocks, with the Hong Kong stock exchange’s benchmark sub-index, Hang Seng Tech Index, up by more than 3%. Buy on Tencent (which leaps by over + 6%), Alibaba (over + 5%) and Meituan (which flies by over + 10%). Closing in strong recovery, after the slip of the eve, also for Tokyo which marked an increase of 1.11%, reaching 27,772.93 points. Positive session also for the broader Topix index which closed the trades with a gain of 0.98% at 1,938.53 points.
Price indicators continue to update records, meanwhile. Today it was the turn of the producer prices of industrial products, which grew by 5% in Germany in December, with an increase of 24.2% on the same month in 2020. According to Destatis, the German Federal Statistical Office, the increase is the strongest since the start of the surveys in 1949, both on a monthly and yearly basis. On the calendar, today, there are also the final data of theDecember Eurozone inflation and the publication of the minutes of the last meeting of the ECB on monetary policy. There is also expectation on the markets for the publication of data on weekly unemployment claims in the United States.
Start of a stable day for theeuro, on the currency front: it is trading at 1.1351 dollars (+ 0.07%) and at 129.94 yen (+ 0.20%). Monetary policy decisions are expected from Norway and Turkey, which, according to analysts, should interrupt its path against the trend of cutting rates, dictated by Erdogan’s need to have money at a cost lower than the level of inflation.
Among the raw materials, oro stable at the opening of the markets: it is trading at 1,840.07 dollars an ounce, down by 0.03%. Oil has also moved little, trading at its highest since 2014. The WTI is trading at 86.95 dollars a barrel (-0.01%), the Brent at 88.28 dollars (-0.18%).