MILANO – 11 am Cautious start for European stock exchanges amid the uncertainties linked to the spread of Covid in China with the risk of heavy new lockdowns and fears of a possible impact on global growth from the monetary tightening of central banks. To take a picture of the degree of concern in Europe is also the collapse of the Gfk index on consumer confidence in Germanywhich fell beyond expectations in May, settling at -26.5 compared to -15.7 in April, against an expected -16.
Gas prices are also in the spotlight, following Gazprom’s announcement of a stop to supplies to Bulgaria and Poland. Today conflicting indications arrive: on the one hand the Russian giant confirms the stop, but along the pipes of the network of the two countries involved there is talk of a flow that is still active. “The flows of gas from Russia entering Italy from Tarvisio are regular”, instead reassures Snam. Meanwhile, the tension on the market is all there: the prices of the future for delivery in May rise by 16% in the morning to 119.7 euros per MWh, after having also reached a maximum of 125 euros at the start.
The indices of the Old Continent start again so little moved. Milano is up by 0.1%, London salt by 0.2%, Frankfurt is up 0.15% in line with Paris. Many other elements are looked at carefully: the Twitter-Musk affair continues to hold its own, while the quarterly figures are above Microsoft’s expectations and disappointing for Google. Big tech continues to produce results: today it’s up to Meta (Facebook), tomorrow to Apple and Amazon.
A downturn for the Asian indices, which also discount a series of US quarterly reports below expectations, Google in the lead. TO Tokyo the Nikkei closes the session down 1.17%. The Chinese stock exchanges found the rebound, rising from the lows of the last two years, on the announcement of investments for infrastructures indicated by President Xi Jinping to support the economy weakened by the wave of Covid-19: the Composite index of Shanghai rises by 2.49%, to 2,958.28 points, while that of Shenzhen marks a jump of 3.94%, to 1,821.39.
Among currencies, the strengthening of the dollar on international currency markets weighs oneuro, this morning still slightly down to 1.0629 dollars (-0.08%), on the lows since April 2017. The single European currency is instead trading at 135.9 yen, in this case up by 0.41% . Among the macro data of the day, Istat notes that in March the Italian energy deficit with non-EU countries it reaches 8.256 billion (it was 2.67 billion a year ago). “The energy deficit widens considerably but the balance in the trade of non-energy products is largely positive and slightly higher than a year earlier”.
The prices of the petrolium Russia’s cut in gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria keeps markets in tension, with new prospects for rising prices. Brent from the North Sea recorded an increase of 0.6% to 105.64 dollars a barrel. The same percentage also for the American WTI which rises to 102.26 dollars a barrel