The European lists close a limping session, which suffered in the final part from the uncertain performance of Wall Street. Piazza Affari, exuberant in the morning, still remains up by 0,11% and stops at 24.139 points, driven by utilities, but weighed down by financial and oil companies. Amsterdam is doing better, +0,21%, while Frankfurt is down 0,22%, after the unfavorable electoral results for Angela Merkel's party.
There was a slight decrease in Paris -0,18%, where Danone however gained 2,89%, after the board of directors decided to oust the chairman and CEO Emmanuel Faber following growing pressure from shareholders.
Madrid -0,05%, London -0,17%. The climate in New York is variable and the indices are struggling to find a precise direction, pushed on one side by the strong Biden plan of 1900 trillion dollars and the vaccination campaign, but held back by fears of a rise in inflation and the consequences that the Fed will be able to draw from the macro picture, at the end of the monetary policy meeting this Wednesday 17. According to the new forecasts by Goldman Sachs, the US GDP will grow by 8% this year and will be the biggest leap since 1951. Furthermore, according to press rumors, President Joe Biden is considering the largest federal tax increase since 1993 to finance his next moves to support the economy. The yield on government bonds today is down and the 2-year Treasury rate loses around 1,6%, however still moving on the XNUMX% line.
The week is full of central bank meetings, which will gather in many parts of the globe, from London to Ankara, from Cairo to Tokyo.
In Europe, meanwhile, the AstraZeneca problem holds the ground (-0,5% on the Nasdaq), because the Anglo-Swedish company's vaccine is suspended as a precaution, due to a series of cases of thrombosis (following but not necessarily related to vaccination), also from Italy, Germany, France and the Netherlands. Both Oxford and the European drug agency say that all vaccines are safe, including that of AstraZeneca, but there are now a dozen European countries that have decided to stop, at least temporarily. The slowdown does not help the ambitions of a vaccination campaign in Europe and the Italian goal of immunizing 80% of the population by September, even if other serums will begin to become available in the coming weeks. In addition, relations between the EU and the United Kingdom worsen. In fact, the Union has launched legal action against the unilateral changes by Great Britain on trade agreements in Northern Ireland. According to Brussels these break the divorce agreement with London.
The bloc then sent a formal notification letter to start an "infringement procedure", which could lead to the imposition of sanctions by the EU's top court, although this could take at least a year, leaving enough time to find a solution. .
On the foreign exchange market, the single currency is flat against the pound (exchange rate 0,8587), while it is down against the dollar at 1,1924. Bitcoin is down, after updating its record over the weekend and trades around $56.334 (-5,6%). Among the raw materials, oil lost strength, with Brent which, after going up to 70 dollars a barrel, traded down by 0,8% to 68,66 dollars.
In Piazza Affari the session was lively for the utilities. In particular, Terna is the best blue chip on the list with an increase of 4,69%. Hera +1,54% and Snam +1,18% also shine. Enel goes against the trend -0,9%, after the announcement of the voluntary takeover bid of up to 10% of Enel Americas.
Leonardo appreciates by 4,17%, after the announcement of the IPO on the minority stake of the US subsidiary Drs listed on Wall Street.
In evidence Inwit +3,04%. The bullish phase of Stellantis continues +2,14%, which does better than the sector at European level, in the wake of a study by Deutsche Bank which started hedging with "Buy" and a target price of 20 euros and by Jp Morgan which brought the target price to 20 euros from the previous 18 euros.
In addition, the share price of the car company was adjusted following the extraordinary dividend of 0,096677 euros detached on Monday 15 March 2021. The closing value of Stellantis on Friday 12 March, equal to 15,436 euros, was adjusted to 14,548 euros. Rebound Diasorin +1,79%. Sales penalize Tenaris -2,48%; Nexi -2,56%; Finecobank -1,67%; Azimuth -1,49%; Moncler -1,38%; Bper -1,35%.
Outside the main basket Webuild rises by 3,15%, while Astaldi sells 18,15% after the exchange ratio of the merger transaction between the two companies indicated in the demerger plan was disclosed as 203 Webuild ordinary shares per every 1.000 ordinary Astaldi shares. According to Bestinver, this is “positive news for Webuild since the merger with Astaldi will make it possible to maximize the synergies between the two groups, eliminating the conflict of interest with the minority shareholder Astaldi. If the two market values of the shares are compared, the exchange ratio favors Webuild” and this explains the diametrically opposite performance of the two shares on the Stock Exchange today.
Bonds were stable: the spread between Italian and German ten-year bonds closed at 93 basis points and the BTP yield stopped at +0,6%. It should be noted that the Italian public debt has reached a new record and, according to Bank of Italy data, rose to 2603 billion euros in January. Meanwhile, in December the value of the portfolio of Italian government bonds held by foreign entities fell, reaching its lowest level since July. Based on Reuters calculations on Via Nazionale data, the share of securities held by non-residents out of the total in circulation came to 32,5% from 32,6% in November.
In terms of macroeconomics, the most important data came from China, after the recovery according to market observers it could generate a less expansive attitude on the part of the authorities. In the first two months of 2021, the industrial production of the celestial empire rose by 35,1% annually, after +7,3% in December and against a consensus of analysts set at +30%, however compared with a January-February 2020 characterized since the shutdown of activities in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis. Retail sales were also widespread, recording a leap of 33,8% annually in January-February, after the +4,6% in December and the +32% expected by the markets, thanks to consumption linked to the Lunar New Year.
