MILANO – Departure in decline for the European stock exchanges. The week started with bad data from the Chinese economy for the month of April. Due to lockdowns and anti-Covid restrictions, retail sales plummeted 11.1% while unemployment rose to 6.1%, close to all-time highs. Numbers that have pushed the yuan to its lows since October 2020, which reached 6.7924 at the exchange rate for one dollar. In the meantime, Europe is waiting for new indications on the path of the ECB rate hike, even if in recent weeks the declarations of the board members have suggested that a change could take place as early as July. Indications in this sense can come from the public intervention that the president of the Central Bank will pronounce tomorrow Christine Lagarde while hints on growth may not come from the economic forecasts that the European Commission will publish today.
Europe starts with the minus sign as mentioned. Milano loses 0.26%, London drops 0.7%, Frankfurt 0.72% e Paris 0.92%. On the other hand, Asian financial markets contrasted, with Chinese indices falling and Tokyo closing up instead.
Among currencies, theeuro it is little moved and is trading at 1.0404 dollars, with a minimum change of -0.07% compared to Friday. The exchange rate with the yen is instead at 134.1.
Chinese data, on the commodities front, also penalized the price of oil. With the signs of a slowdown in the Chinese economy, Brent, the European benchmark crude oil quoted in London, lost 1.6%, falling just below $ 110 a barrel. The American WTI fell by 1.5% to 108.8 dollars. Gas prices start down the first session of the week, while we look at the EU draft for payments to Russia and with the arrival of the hot season. In Amsterdam, the price drops to 94.14 euros per MWh, a decrease of 2.8% compared to the close on Friday.