On the eve of the stress tests, thanks to the decline in oil prices and Yellen's statements, the European stock exchanges closed in the red and Wall Street moved weakly.
Piazza Affari is particularly heavy, leaving 2,02% on the ground: Saipem down 9,78% after yesterday evening it announced a revision of its revenue and profit estimates for the whole of 2016. No positive signals are coming from the giant Royal Dutch Shell either which lost 3,5% after closing the quarter with a profit that is less than half of what analysts expected. In the meantime Brent is down 1,59% to 42,78 dollars a barrel, WTI is down 1,53% to 41,28 dollars a barrel.
Azimut -9,38% also fell sharply on the Milanese list, after the presentation of the semester and the appointment of the new one to Sergio Albarelli, and FCA -8,05% in line with the negative day in the car sector.
Other European stock exchanges file fractional losses: Paris -0,59%, Frankfurt -0,43%, London -0,44%.
Tomorrow the publication of the stress tests on European banks is expected and the conclusion of the meeting of the Japanese Central Bank which could approve an expansion of the quantitative easing policy, after yesterday Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced a 265 billion dollar fiscal stimulus package . Furthermore, the markets are re-elaborating the words of Janet Yellen who last night reiterated that the risks of a slowdown in the US economy have diminished and has returned to hypothesizing a possible rate hike by the end of this year. The outlook does not support the greenback: the euro-dollar exchange rate rose by 0,33% to 1,109135.
On Wall Street, sales hit Ford after the publication of quarterly earnings below estimates but revenues beyond expectations. Above all, the cautious outlook weighs: the company warned of a "weaker than normal" context for the rest of the year, also to blame for Brexit. The rest of the car compartment is heavy on the wheel. In Europe sales of Volkswagen after the publication of the results of the second quarter with a drop in profits of 55% due to the increase in extraordinary expenses linked to the Dieselgate scandal.
Purchases reward Facebook which has almost tripled its profits thanks to advertising. Eyes up net suite after the acquisition by Oracle for $ 109 a share in cash, 19% premium.
The Btp-bund spread drops to 128 basis points (-1%). Today the Treasury placed medium-long term BTPs for 8,5 billion euros with declining yields. Five-year BTPs were assigned for 2 billion at 0,26% down 7 basis points, in addition to 4,5 billion of the new 1,24-year BTP at 12% (-2 points) and another 2023 billion Cct maturing July 0,38 at 19% (down XNUMX basis points from the previous auction).
Mediaset -2,83%. Il Biscione rejected Vivendi's new proposal to the sender and is ready to protect itself both in civil proceedings and, possibly, in criminal proceedings. “Mediaset's board of directors – reads a note released today – has taken note of what was communicated by the management and has resolved to reject Vivendi's alternative proposal judged inadmissible because it is incompatible with the already signed binding contract. The board of directors therefore mandated the directors to take all appropriate actions aimed at obtaining fulfillment of the contract by Vivendi and, in the event of inaction by the latter, to take civil and possibly criminal action to protect the interests of society".
Moncler limits the fall to 2,12% after a start with a sharp drop. The reorganization of the corporate structure through which the CEO Remo Ruffini controls the company weighs heavily: the controlling stake is conferred to a holding company 24% owned by Temasek, the holding company of the city state of Singapore, and by Juan Carlos Torres, president of Dufry. Tamburi leaves the holding company of CEO Remo Ruffini and will have a direct stake of 5,1% in Moncler.
Enel closed slightly lower after the presentation of a positive half-year (ordinary profit up +8,6%, ebitda +1,2%) and the increase in targets for 2016. The energy giant also announced the agreement for the merger into a single company of Open Fiber and Metroweb, an operation worth 814 million euros.
In Piazza Affari they move positively only three stocks on the blue chip basket: Leonardo +2,73%, Mps +0,10%, Prysmian +0,10%. Recordati closed down by 0,55% after making a new all-time high of 29,30 euros during the day. The company closed the first half of 2016 with robust growth figures: consolidated net revenues of 587,9 million (+9,1%) and Ebitda of 188,1 million.
