The sales on Wall Street take away any hope of recovery from the European lists which close in the red. Milan was also down, which in the morning was kept afloat by banks and utilities and by some positive confirmations on the economic front, with the exit from the recession and the increase in inflation.
The Ftse Mib closed down by 1% worsening towards the end and London also ended up in negative territory with a loss of 0,12%, while Frankfurt widened the fall reaching a loss of 1,72%, followed by Paris -1,62%. The Btp Bund spread closed at 137 basis points.
Since the beginning of the day, the uncertainties about Greece have certainly weighed heavily, first with the pessimistic declarations (denied) on the improbability of an agreement with Greece released by the number one of the IMF (in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) Christine Lagarde, then with the clarification by Wolfgang Schaeuble on the positive statements made by Athens in recent days which, he says, "do not fully reflect" the state of the negotiations. Our Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan shares the same opinion: "On Greece - he said - from the point of view of substance, the agreement is not close and time is short". Even today, Prime Minister Varoufakis assured that an agreement will soon be reached. "According to the February 20th agreement between Athens and the creditor countries - he said in an interview with Greek radio VimaFm - the aid plan was extended until June 30th, therefore an agreement must be reached by that date".
DEPOSITS COLLAPSE IN GREECE. US GDP CONFIRMS THE SETTLEMENT
Finally, the data on the collapse of Greek bank deposits, to their lowest level in the last ten years, has aggravated the alarm. In April, according to data from the Bank of Greece, the total amount of deposits was reduced to 142,7 billion euros, from 149 billion in March. This is the lowest value since December 2004. So much so that in the US Treasury Secretary, Jack Lew, asked that an agreement be reached as soon as possible.
In the afternoon, however, it was the data on GDP for the first quarter that catalysed the attention of the markets. As feared, the data certified the slowdown in US GDP which grew by 2014% in the fourth quarter of 2,2 and ended below zero at -2015% at the beginning of 0,7, also due to the long winter bad weather and the dollar strong. The figure was better than expected, analysts had expected a drop of 1%, but it nevertheless signaled an evident setback for the American recovery which is struggling to find solidity. The data should consolidate expectations for a postponement of the interest rate hike by the Fed (and therefore would in this sense support share prices) but fuel doubts about the US recovery capacity.
Other economic data released today contrasted: May University of Michigan consumer confidence fell to 90 points from 95,9 the month before but did better than expectations for 84,2 points. On the other hand, the Chicago PMI for May, created with the indications of the purchasing managers of the companies, was disappointing, which stood at 46,2 points against expectations for 53 points, and after the 52,3 in April.
Faced with these data, prudence returned, which supported purchases of Treasuries (in any case also conditioned by the managers' purchases at the end of the month). Now let's look at Monday's ISM manufacturing index. Stock indexes fell: the Dow Jones dropped 0,5% and the S%P 500 0,47%. The euro-dollar exchange rate rose by 0,38% to 1,0991 and WTI oil rebounded by 3,3% to 59,59 dollars a barrel.
In Piazza Affari, the Mps rights +5,59% are highlighted, while the shares of the Sienese bank increase by 0,93% (still among the best stocks of the Ftse Mib) and Bper +1,55%. bpm +0,16%. On the other hand, Intesa Sanpaolo -2,09%, Unicredit -0,62% and Ubi -1,46%, Banco Popolare -0,9% are down. Utilities also did well with Enel Green Power rising by 0,94% and A2A +0,89%. At the bottom of the Ftse Mib are Mediaset -3,98%, Azimut -3,44%, Buzzi Unicem -2,25%.
