Stock markets around the world are falling—but not all equally—in this final pre-Easter session, following the fading peace in the Middle East. As we learned with Donald Trump, geopolitics these days is highly volatile, and everything can change overnight. So, after yesterday's encouraging signs, Tokyo's Nikkei index opened the day down 2,4%, followed by European markets with more limited losses: Milan -0,2%, Paris -0,24%, Frankfurt the worst with -0,8%, London even +0,7% at the end. Finally, Wall Street opens a little less pessimistic: Dow Jones and Nasdaq even turn positive for a moment following the news that Iran is reportedly collaborating with Oman for a traffic monitoring protocol through the Strait of Hormuz.
READ HERE TODAY'S LIVE STOCK MARKET REPORT
Oil and gas rise, gold and silver fall
The reason for the latest collapse in the stock market is the rise in oil prices, which yesterday had lost some ground but remained around 100 dollars a barrel, and today has decidedly raised its head again, with WTI Crude Oil quality overtaking BrentThe former is trading around $111 a barrel, up about 10% (though it had gained 13% at the start of the session), while the latter is stuck at $108 a barrel. For crude oil, this represents a return to its highest levels in almost four years, since June 2022. Gas is also rising, returning to 50 euros/MWh after yesterday's losses. These losses are now affecting safe-haven commodities: Gold falls below $4.700 an ounce, silver loses 4% and fluctuates around 72 dollars an ounce.
Piazza Affari recovers in the final stages but Stm and the banks fall
News from the Middle East allowed the Italian stock market to recover in the closing stages, dropping only 0,2% to 45.600 points. Among the best performers were energy stocks, driven by rising oil prices, with Eni up 4,3%, Saipem up 3,5%, Snam and A2a up 2,2%. Stellantis also performed well, up 4% after encouraging registration data, despite the recall of 700 hybrid cars. Meanwhile, STM (-2,8%) and banks were in the red: the worst performers were MPS (-2,7%) on the day of the record date ahead of the shareholders' meeting, Unicredit (-2,5%), Mediobanca (-2,5%), and Bper Banca (-1,8%). The BTP-Bund spread rises slightly to 86 basis points., with the yield on our 10-year BTP at 3,86%. Other European markets also limited the damage at the end of the session, especially Paris -0,24%, where, however, Air France collapsed -4% following news of its offer for 44,9% of the Portuguese airline TAP.
Wall Street starts off reasonably well but tech stocks are generally in the red
As mentioned, Wall Street starts with a better attitude on the umpteenth about-face from Iran: Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite Index oscillate all three around parity at the time the European stock markets closeTechnology stocks are mixed but definitely trending in the red: Nvidia +0,5%, Tesla -4%, Apple -0,4%, Microsoft +0,3%, Meta -1%, Google -0,6%. Another significant decline in Bitcoin is worth noting: -3% below $67.000. And instead the US dollar regains value against the euro, bringing the exchange rate back below 1,16.
