Weak session for European lists and for Wall Street, in the early hours of trading, on the day Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and Secretary of State Janet Yellen speak to the US Congress. The slump in oil weighs on the markets, closely linked to concerns about anti-pandemic restrictions in Europe, particularly in Germany and France, while the European Commission tomorrow will extend the powers of the bloc to stop exports of anti-covid vaccines to cover the cases of companies that delay the quarterly supplies agreed with the EU.
In this context, Frankfurt appreciates by 0,1%, but Paris loses 0,4% (in countertrend, Essilorluxottica, +1,62%, with the go-ahead conditional on the acquisition of GrandVision by the EU). Even Great Britain (London -0,41%) is putting the burden on us by closing its borders: starting next Monday, in fact, it will be illegal for the British to go abroad, except for reasons of urgency, and transgressors risk a fine of 5 pounds . The tender will remain in force at least until the end of June, with all due respect to the late spring holidays.
Piazza Affari closes the session with a loss of 0,61%, with energy in the sights of sellers and the auto sector in reverse. At the top of the list is instead Amplifon, +5,04%, favored by the disappointing results of the experimentation of the drug against deafness, in the study by the American Frequency Therapeutics, a company that sinks by 75% on the Nasdaq. Overseas, where the start is tepid, AstraZeneca also proceeds down by 3%, after Niaid (the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) led by Anthony Fauci said that the results of the trial in the USA (79% effectiveness) are outdated and probably don't account for variants.
The Anglo-Swedish company will then update the data presented within 48 hours, but his reputation may suffer, especially in the EU where there have already been doubts about alleged and serious side effects, later dispelled by the drug agency. Prejudices, however, once created are difficult to overcome. Oil suffers above all: Brent futures drop 3,7% and fall to 62,23 dollars a barrel, while Texan crude loses about 4% and trades at around 59 dollars. For Reuters “the structure of the market points to a weakening of crude oil, with the spread of the month “spot” which finds itself in the contango phase for the first time since January. Contango occurs when the spot price of contracts is lower than future months' contracts, and could encourage traders to stockpile crude oil.
Furthermore the weight of the dollar is felt on oilwhich gets stronger. The euro loses about 0,5% on the greenback and trades in the 1,186 area. Until the closure of the European lists, the speeches of Powell and Yellen, anticipated in written form to the press, appeared to be irrelevant. The first reiterates that the Fed "will continue to provide economic support as long as necessary", because the recovery "is far from complete". Yellen recalls instead that there are still "almost 10 million fewer jobs" compared to the pre-pandemic peak, that "22 million people say they don't have enough food to eat".
In any case, one year after the low touched by the stock markets due to the outbreak of the pandemic, the Dow Jones gained more than 75%, the Nasdaq Composite more than 90%, the Russell 2000 - the index of small capitalization companies - 126%. In the business square the worst blue chip of the day is Stellantis, which drops 3,34%. In the Agnelli galaxy, Exor -2,76% and Cnh, -2,33%, are also in the red, while Ferrari remains positive, +0,23%.
Profit-taking penalizes Finecobank -2,77%. Among oil products, sales sink Saipem -2,7%, penalized by HSBC which cut the recommendation to "Hold" from "Buy" with a target price of 2,6 euros from the previous 2,9 euros. The letter on banks continues, with the big Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo down respectively by 0,73% and 0,41%. Creval loses 0,23%, 11,976 euros per share, compared to the tender offer price of 10,5 euros which will start on 30 March and will end, unless extended, on 21 April after Consob has approved the prospectus. According to Intesa Sanpaolo analysts, "the current price remains well above the offer price as we believe that the market expects an upward revision of the price by Credit Agricole Italia".
Sector rotation today rewards utilities, such as Hera +2,26%, Italgas +2,44%, A2A +2,14%, Terna +1,61%, Snam +1,1%, Enel +0,91% . Bonds in green: the spread between Italian and German ten-year bonds drops to 94 basis points (-2,19%) and the BTP rate closes at +0,6%.
