The last session of the first week of September shows Western financial markets tending towards negative territory, following the data from US employment report for August significantly better than expected with 162.000 more jobs (excluding agriculture) than the previous month, triple what analysts expected. This finding is creating a short circuit that is worrying the stock markets: on the one hand, the booming US economy is raising concerns about inflation and therefore fuels the risk of an interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve after the midterm elections in November (but perhaps even before), on the other hand the president Donald Trump is once again pushing for a rate cut“High interest rates put the United States at a very unfair disadvantage, and I will not allow that to happen!” he thundered on social media.
Tesla takes profits on Nasdaq, but AI soars
In this scenario, the markets cannot help but take note and today the red prevails: Dow Jones -0,7%, Nasdaq Composite Index -0,5%, Milan -0,28% defending the 52.000 points, Paris -0,09%, London -0,03%. In contrast to the trend Frankfurt rose 0,17% thanks to Volkswagen's gains. after the announcement of shock therapy against the crisis: 100.000 cuts and a possible sale of Seat. Artificial intelligence, however, closed the week very well on the Nasdaq: Micron +4,5%, Nvidia +2%, Sandisk +9%, AMD +3,5%, Astera Labs +13%, Marvell +6%, and so on. Generally heavy losses, however, for traditional big tech companies, including Tesla, which is hit by profit-taking after yesterday's rally, supported by the hype for the launch of Elon Musk's latest creationCybercab, the robotaxi company, lost more than 6% today. SpaceX also lost, but by much lesser percentages. Among the worst titles to be highlighted once again is Netflix, which has lost a third of its value in the last 12 months.
Commodities: Oil prices remain above $90 a barrel
On the commodities front, oil stabilizes above 90 dollars a barrel: Today Brent is still worth 95 dollars and WTI Crude Oil is fluctuating around 90 dollarsCrude oil thus closed the week with an overall increase of 8% (the best weekly performance since mid-July), driven by tensions between the United States and Iran that continue to influence market sentiment. Yesterday, US Vice President J.D. Vance declared that Washington does not intend to restart talks with Tehran Until Iran stops attacking merchant shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. European natural gas prices are rising slightly again, hovering around 72 euros per megawatt-hour, which remains a very high figure considering that on January 1, 2026, they were trading at less than 30 euros. Gold and silver have little to say today, after the jolt of the previous session: the first continues to travel below 4.500 dollars an ounce, the second today is worth 66 dollars an ounce.
Banks are struggling on the Milan Stock Exchange. Gros-Pietro (Intesa) speaks from Cernobbio.
At Piazza Affari today Generally speaking, banks are struggling, waiting in the next few weeks to resolve the tender of the risk tangle that involves several of them and also the insurance companies: Intesa Sanpaolo on parity, Unicredit -1,15%, Mps +0,3%, Banco Bpm -1,2%, Banca Generali -0,75%, Unipol -0,2%. From Cernobbio, on the first day of an Ambrosetti Forum that this year has decided to give visibility to Roberto Vannacci, Intesa President Gian Maria Gros-Pietro spoke, who explained that Artificial Intelligence forces banks to merge to address the enormous investments required to meet the challenge: “The economies of scale are enormous: if you are big you can make the investment, if you are not big, if you don't have enough customers you can't sustain it.”
In Milan, the worst stock is Eni, while Stm does well in the wake of US tech.
As regards the fears of local Tuscan authorities that with the Intesa takeover bid for MPS the Sienese bank could lose its autonomy, Gros-Pietro replied as follows:: "This is not what happens. If we look at our recent history, and we look at the attitude of the shareholders who were members of banks outside the group, Now everyone is very happy to be part of Intesa. The shareholders who have entered the capital of Intesa Sanpaolo in recent years have better dividends and above all have a much more positive vision of their future". The worst stock today on the Ftse Mib is Eni -3,3%, while Stm stands out against the trend +1,85% in the wake of the American techFerrari -1,26% on the eve of its home Grand Prix in Monza.
Euro-dollar exchange rate, Bitcoin, and the BTP-Bund spread
Il exchange euro Dollar smiles today at the US currency but it is substantially unchanged at 1,162Bitcoin depreciates by about 2% and returns below $80.000, but remains very close to it. BTP-Bund spread remains above 80 basis points, with the yield on our benchmark 10-year government bond still under pressure, at 4,16%.
