The short week of the European stock exchanges closes in red, stopped from tomorrow for the Easter holiday. Business Square, in line with the other markets, has dropped around 2% since Monday, a performance in line with the average of the other European stock exchanges: Madrid lost 1,8% in four sessions, London 2,3% and Paris 2,2%. Only Frankfurt survived: -0,2%. The race for Bayer, the best title in the Eurostoxx 50, which has gained 4,2% since Monday on rumors of an interest by the US giant Monsanto for its seeds division, has helped.
The US markets are doing better. Despite the weakness of the Petroleum (Wti at 39,3 dollars -1,1%) the Wall Street indices limit the decline to half a percentage point. The macro data confirm the recovery of the economy. Thus fears of an early rate increase are growing: requests for weekly unemployment benefits have fallen to 265 units, better than 269 expected. Durable goods orders fell by 2,8% in February, less than expected -3%.
Day to forget for banks. The announcement of the merger among the Popular triggered a violent current of selling in Piazza Affari: Banco Popolare and Banca Popolare di Milano both finished down by 5%. The other Bigs also suffered: Unicredit -2,7% and Intesa -1,7% reaching their lowest levels since the beginning of the month.
Positive notes, on the contrary, for Poste Italiane +5,5% in the week after the announcement of the accounts and the conference call with analysts. Historical high for Snam Rete Gas and Terna, traditional defensive titles. Rcs Mediagroup +4% was today's best stock with a gain of 4% to €0,5095. Yesterday evening the Antitrust gave the go-ahead for the sale of the Books division to Mondadori.
