The financial markets begin the week following a pattern that has been cyclically repeated for months now, especially in recent weeks: geopolitical tensions between the US and Iran, transit through the semi-blocked Strait of Hormuz, risk of less oil availability, rising oil prices and therefore inflation above target and fear of an interest rate hike by central banks, particularly the US Federal Reserve. Today Brent oil hits above $108 a barrel, the highest level in four months, after Saudi Arabia was forced to shut down the East-West pipeline following attacks from Iraqi territory.
Oil hits $108, a four-month high
The attacks disrupted operations on an infrastructure that transported 7 million barrels of Saudi oil a day to the Red Sea, which is now under the control of Houthi militiamen, pro-Tehran: in effect, Iran holds both Hormuz and the transit route to Suez in check. WTI Crude Oil also rose more than 3%, nearing $104 a barrel. European natural gas prices surge 4% and has well exceeded the 80 euro per megawatt-hour threshold, reaching over 82 euros, the highest since Christmas 2022. Gold and silver, on the other hand, are losing momentum: the former is falling below 4.300 dollars an ounce, the latter is worth around 63 dollars an ounce.
AI collapses after Anthropic's Dario Amodei raises the alarm.
The other driver of this mid-September Monday is the AI crash on the Nasdaq and beyond. Doubts about the unbridled growth of artificial intelligence are now coming from the very top brass of big tech: Dario Amodei, CEO and co-founder of Anthropic, raised the alarm, who previously worked at OpenAI. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, and Elon Musk also agree with his almost apocalyptic words about the future of AI and the need to slow its development. The Nasdaq can only take note: the composite index is down 0,8% as of 17:30 PM Italian time, while the Top 100 index is down 1%. The Dow Jones is down 0,4%, the S&P 500 is down 0,6%. Heavy losses for Micron -5,5%, Nvidia -3%, AMD -5%, Sandisk -6%.
The T-Bond hits the 5% threshold, the BTP-Bund spread approaches 90 points.
Among the worst performing tech stocks were Astera Labs (-9%) and Lumentum (-8%). The traditional big names were in no particular order: the worst performer in this category today was Amazon (-1,3%). Bitcoin rises slightly, but remains below $78.000. From the United States, another source of concern is being fueled, namely that of government bonds and their yields: the 10-year US T-Bond has today reached the fateful threshold of 5%, the highest since July 2007, that is, before the subprime mortgage crisis. Consequently, it has also risen the yield on the 10-year Italian BTP, which exceeds 4,3%, with the BTP Bund spread dangerously close to 90 basis points, its highest since the beginning of April.
Campari soars at Piazza Affari, while banks suffer.
Given all this, here's how European stock markets closed: Milan -1,68%, well below 52.000 points, Paris -0,76%, Frankfurt -0,5%, with only London bucking the trend, up 0,44%. The US dollar strengthened against the euro, bringing the exchange rate below 1,16. At Piazza Affari, the day's exploit was that of Campari +5,5%., after UBS and Morgan Stanley raised their recommendations on the stock: the former set its target price at 7 euros, up from the current 6 euros. Pharmaceuticals also performed well, with Diasorin and Recordati performing well. Among the banks, only Bper is saved with +0,5%.Stm sinks -6,5% in the wake of the American tech, other banks are in the red: Mediobanca is the worst with -3,2%, then Mps -2,9% after the Sienese bank, responding to the request for information Consob's additional information said that it will continue with Banco Bpm and Banca Generali regardless of the outcome of the Intesa takeover bid, Unicredit -0,8%, Intesa Sanpaolo -1,77%. The worst stock on the Ftse Mib is Prysmian -7%..
