First session of the new year for the stock markets and It's still toast time in MilanBut not Campari-based: Piazza Affari opens 2026 gaining practically 1% and breaks through the 45.000 point mark, but the stock of the famous alcoholic beverage loses 0,7%, even if it is not among the worst performers of the day, which are instead Nexi, Cucinelli and Telecom Italia. The Ftse Mib had closed 2025 advancing by a good 31,5% and today benefits from the rallies of four stocks, in particular the sensational one of Fincantieri rises by 5,75%, followed by Stmicroelectronics +4,25%, Leonardo +4,2%, and Prysmian +4%. These are all industrial and technology stocks, and their gains are usually linked to the cooling of peace talks in Ukraine and the timid but perhaps inexorable advance of an impending war economy. In this scenario, the banks are doing their part too, albeit more timidly: Unicredit +0,17%, Intesa Sanpaolo +0,6%, Mediobanca +1%.
In the rest of Europe it should be noted that the London index Ftse 100 touched today for the first time the symbolic threshold of 10.000 pointsFrankfurt is also growing, but more timidly than Milan, at +0,3%, while Paris is advancing by half a percentage point. Meanwhile, on the macroeconomic front On the continent, lending to businesses and households in the euro area accelerated in November, according to data from the European Central Bank. The euro area manufacturing sector stalled at the end of 2025, with production levels declining for the first time since last February, according to the regular S&P Global-Hamburg Commercial Bank survey.
As for raw materials, we come from a rally year especially for gold and silver, and precious metals are off to a good but still stuttering start in 2026, after gold's 2025 rally was the strongest in 46 years, while silver and platinum posted their biggest gains ever, driven by several factors including Fed rate cuts, geopolitical crises, strong central bank buying, and ETF inflows. The euro/dollar remains essentially stable at 1,174. Widespread selling on the Petroleum (Light Sweet Crude Oil), which closed the session below 57 dollars per barrel. The spread Btp-Bund above 70 basis points, with an increase of 3 basis points, with the yield of the XNUMX-year BTP equal to 3,58%.
2026 has also begun in America and The Nasdaq is weak in the early afternoon, dragged down by the decline in Meta -2% (same percentage of losses also for Microsoft and Amazon) and Tesla -1,5%. Nvidia, on the other hand, started the new year well with a +1,6%. On Wall Street today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average appears to be doing better, gaining 0,33%.
