The day ended with strong drops for the main European stock exchanges while in the evening Wall Street moved sharply down with the Nasdaq down by more than two points. The sales are driven by fears of more restrictive-than-expected moves coming from the main central banks. The eyes, in particular, are on the Jackson Hole symposium in the US, scheduled for Thursday, where indications are expected from the head of the US Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell. The fear of the markets is of an aggressive monetary policy which, in an attempt to stem the record increases in inflation, ends up having negative impacts on the economy. In the US at the moment there remains the unknown as to the size of the next hike scheduled for September, which could be 50 or 75 basis points.
In the context of general nervousness, Piazza Affari closed the session with a 1.6% red. Worse did Frankfurt (-2.3%) penalized by the analyzes of the Bundebank experts in the monthly bulletin published this morning. According to the German Institute, a recession became more likely for Germany in the autumn, as did an inflation rate of 10%.
In Milan, all sectors were penalized by sales, with banks and financials in the lead and decreases of around 3% for the sector indices. Sales hit Saipem (-6%), Moncler (-4.5%) and Telecom Italia (-4.3%) in particular, while Recordati (+ 1.7%) and Eni (+1.6) held up better. %).
Euro below par
Against this backdrop, the single currency fell back below par against the dollar today as traders continued to buy US government bonds: 10-year Treasury rates pushed above 3% for the first time in more than a year. month. The trend reinforced the hypothesis of a rate increase of 75 basis points in September in the US.
.Btp live
Italian government bonds also pay the price for the return of tension. The Italian 10-year BTP closed with a yield up to 3.60% from 3.50% the previous close. On the shortest part of the curve, the 2-year BTP rate is up to 1.86% from 1.75% seen previously. The closing BTP / Bund spread reached 230 basis points.
Gas e Petroleum
The price of natural gas on the Ttf platform in Amsterdam is still under pressure today, after the announcement of the stop to deliveries from Russia through the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline for three days, from 31 August to 2 September, officially for maintenance operations. In the evening, prices were up by 16% to 282 euros per MWh.
On the other hand, the pertrolio is downhill. In the evening, a barrel (159 liters) of North Sea Brent cost $ 93.20. This is $ 3.52 less than last Friday. Similar trend for the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) barrel price, which fell $ 3.35 to $ 87.42.
According to market observers, black gold prices continue to decline due to the prospect of an increase in oil exports from Iran, one of the most important producing countries in the world. Over the weekend, US President Joe Binden phoned the heads of government of Germany, France and Great Britain. Among other things, the situation in the Middle East was discussed, including negotiations on the nuclear deal with Iran.