MILANO – 5 pm The Federal Reserve President, Jerome Powell, confirms in a hearing in the Senate on the occasion of the start of his second term of office the change of pace in the strategy of the American Central Bank, which had already emerged from the minutes of the meeting in mid-December: the Fed will take steps to address the danger of inflation, which for Powell himself is a threat to maximum employment. The president has as expected that the Fed will use its tools against price increases. “If more aggressive rate hikes are needed to cool inflation, the Fed will do them. If inflation persists,” and more rate hikes are needed, “we will,” he noted. Words that reflect the expectation that has now formed on the markets. Interviewed by cnbcJpMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon said before the official hearing: “I would be surprised if there were only four interest rate hikes this year.”
Speaking to the senators, Powell detailed that the US economy no longer needs and no longer wants a highly expansive and accommodating policy: the time has come to move forward with respect to the pandemic emergency. He remarked that the labor market is “recovering incredibly quickly”. The road to a return to “normal” for monetary policy is still “long”, but the course is indicated: in 2022 we will “normalize” monetary policy and the Fed will put an end to asset purchases in March and could probably begin to reduce its budget later in the year.
He also spoke of fears for price hikes Christine Lagarde, speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the new Bundesbank president Joachim Nagel, successor of Jens Weidmann. “We understand that rising prices are a concern for many people and we take this concern very seriously. But people can be confident that our commitment to price stability is unwavering, which is critical to the firm anchoring of expectations. inflation and confidence in the currency, “he said. An alarm in this sense also came from theOECD, according to which inflation in the member countries of the organization rose to 5.8% in November compared to 5.2% in October, reaching the highest rate since May 1996. Nagel himself then raised the pressure on the Bank Central European Central Bank, pointing out: “One thing is clear: if price stability requires it, the ECB must act and adjust its course of monetary policy”.
Among these indications, the indices move mixed between Europe and the United States. They are positive in the first case, albeit below the highs of the morning: Milano salt by 0.6%, London by 0.3%, Frankfurt 0.9% e Paris 0.8%. Lazy instead Wall Street, which widens its losses after the hearing with the Dow Jones in the red by 0.6% and the Nasdaq losing 0.35%.
A PBusiness square in the spotlight Saipem, which was awarded 2 new contracts in Australia and Guyana for a total value of 1.1 billion dollars (0.97 billion euros, the first with Woodside and the second with Exxonmobil. : Tokyo closed down 0.9%, Hong Kong lost 0.31%, Shanghai Composite fell 0.82% and Shenzhen Component dropped 1.41%.
Little moved it spread, which in the afternoon reaches 135 points with the Italian ten-year yield exceeding 1.3 percent. On the foreign exchange market, the euro opens higher above 1.13 dollars and changes hands at 1.1337 and is also up against the yen at 130.59. Dollar yen at 115.20.
Among the raw materials, the przzzo del Petroleum: the barrel of crude for delivery in February is trading at $ 78.72 with an increase of 0.63%. Brent with delivery in March changes hands at $ 81.23 with an advance of 0.45%.
.