La missile threat from Pyongyang it is the wedge that has hindered the increase machine on world price lists. After the setback of the Asian stock exchanges, the slowdown has infected Europe. TO Milano the Ftse Mib index fell by around 1,20% around 21.800 points. Down too Paris (-1,6%), Frankfurt (-1,30%) And London (-0,8%). Madrid loses 1,26%.
Il dollar consolidates yesterday's gains against the euro this morning: cross at 1,173, unchanged.
Petroleum little moved: Brent fell by 0,1% to 52 dollars a barrel. Data from the American Petroleum Institute (API) showed a sharp drop in US crude inventories, overshadowing doubts about compliance with the OPEC-backed production cut deal. Contained declines among the oil stocks of Piazza Affari: Eni -0,1% Saipem + 0,2%.
A new positive signal arrives for the Italian economy: the Istat numbers give a monthly rise in industrial production equal to 1,1%, or +5,3% on an annual basis. The trend takes on an even more significant value compared with the slowdown in Germany and Spain.
Lo spread Btp/Bund rises to 155 basis points, the yield on the Italian ten-year bond is 1,989%. This morning the Bundesbank placed 4 billion of the Bobl (the five-year bond) at a negative yield of 0,26 against -0,14% last month.
In Europe, all the Stoxx sector indices are down, with more pronounced losses for banks (-0,8%). They retreat Unicredit (-2%) And Understanding (-0,9%), despite the positive assessments of brokers: Macquarie raised Unicredit's target price to 22 euros from 21 euros, Kbw (Keefe, Bruyette, Woods) raised Intesa's target to 3,29 euros from 2,85 euro: the bank is in the process of acquiring Banque Morval, a Swiss financial company specializing in asset management with offices in Lugano and Geneva with assets under management of 2 billion euro. The transaction should take place with an outlay of between 150 and 200 million.
Down too Bpm bank (-1,8%), Ubi (-1,2%) And Mediobanca (-1,3%). The big European credit losers: in Paris BNP Paribas -1,3% Société Générale -1,2%, in Frankfurt Deutsche Bank -1,8%. Insurance companies are also down. They go down Generali (-1,1%) And General Bank (-1,7%), UnipolSai (-1,2%).
A note of caution on the asset management sector comes from Equita, which analyzes the impact on funding of the forthcoming introduction of Mifid II, the discipline that regulates European financial services which has been operational since 2018. It will also be more difficult, adds Equita, to steal customers and assets to traditional banks after the rescue of MPS and the two Veneto banks (La Popolare di Vicenza and Veneto Banca).
“These three institutions alone lost 44 billion euros of deposits in the three-year period 2014-2016 and if we add up the loss of indirect deposits, therefore securities, funds, life insurance policies, we would probably reach 60-70 billion euros cumulative net income for listed asset management companies equal to 61 billion in the same period”, calculate the analysts of Equita.
Utilities under pressure: Enel loses 0,7%. Telecom Italy -0,2%. Bad day also for industrialists: stm lose 1,8%, Fiat Chrysler -1,6% Buzzi -1,1%.
