(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor Plus) – The European stock exchanges are weak, after the good performance of the last sessions and while the season of the US quarterly is moving forward at full speed. Chinese macro data, however, are worrying, indicating a less robust recovery than expected. The performance of the FTSE MIB in Piazza Affari is also penalized by the detachment of the dividend by four listed companies: Intesa Sanpaolo, Generali, Unipol and Banca Mediolanum.
In the afternoon spotlight on US data: industrial production data for the month of September will be released. The previous survey had made a progress of 0.4% monthly. According to Unicredit analysts, a + 0.1% monthly is to be expected compared to September.
The exchange rate between the euro and the dollar remained stable, remaining below 1.16, while oil prices continue to rise: Brent over 85 dollars a barrel, WTI above 83 dollars.
China, growth slows between energy crisis and real estate bubble
China’s GDP growth dramatically slowed down in the third quarter of 2021, climbing by 4.9% per year, at the lows of the last 12 months, after the + 7.9% recorded in the second quarter. This was announced by the Chinese National Statistics Office, according to which economic growth was 0.2%, compared to 1.5% in the previous three months and the expected 0.5%. A negative mix of factors weighed on growth, including the energy crisis, fears of the explosion of a real estate bubble after the Evergrande crisis and the outbreaks of Covid-19 that occurred in the third quarter in the country.
Furthermore the Chinese industrial production in September 2021 it recorded an increase of 3.1% on an annual basis. The increase is less than the + 5.3% per year recorded in the previous one
month of august. In particular, steel production fell by 21.2% on an annual basis, while the retail sales which recorded an increase of 4.4% in the reference month from the + 2.5% per annum recorded in August.