It was already in the air yesterday evening when in the after-hours on Wall Street, shortly after the publication of a quarterly, although satisfactory on paperMicrosoft's stock was in the red, and this was confirmed in today's session, becoming the stock market event of the day, together with – in Europe – that of SAP in Germany. Today Microsoft even lost almost 12% Other tech stocks are also in the red, causing the Nasdaq Composite Index to drop 2% (while the Dow Jones is faring better, losing only 0,4%): in addition to Microsoft, Amazon is down 2%, Tesla is also coming off a disappointing quarterly result (-2,5%), Apple is down 0,35%, and Nvidia is down 2%. Meta, on the other hand, is rebounding, having also released its results yesterday, and is up 8%.
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Things are looking a little better in Europe, as oil, another major player today that soars on US-Iran tensions, is pushing up oil stocks. And so Piazza Affari ultimately closed just below par The two best-performing stocks are Saipem (+2,4%) and Eni (+1,85%), followed by Mediobanca (+1,7%) and Inwit (+1,5%). Our oil giants are therefore benefiting from a session in which Brent crude in London broke through the $70 a barrel threshold and approached $71, having started 2026 below $60. WTI crude listed in New York exceeded $65 a barrel, gaining about 2,6%. Frankfurt fared worse than Milan, weighed down, as anticipated, by the SAP case, the German software giant that, despite its good financial position, is still in the red. it disappointed the markets, losing more than 14% and dragging the DAX 100 index to -1,6%. Madrid fared better, losing only a small amount, while Paris and London closed in positive territory.
Returning to the Ftse Mib, it is worth noting the STM flops -5,75% after the rally of the last few sessions, and profit-taking also occurred on Telecom Italia, down 4%. Despite the new escalation in international tensions, the usual defense stocks aren't benefiting: Leonardo plunges to -2,6%, and Fincantieri loses half a percentage point. The BTP-Bund spread also jittered a bit today, rising back to 60 basis points, with the yield on the Italian 10-year government bond falling to 3,44%. The dollar recovers something against the euro, even if our currency is largely defending the exchange rate at 1,19.
Last but not least, the raw materials of the moment, namely gold and silver, which investors around the world are buying to hedge against geopolitical storms. Having reached unthinkable values, the two precious metals are taking a small break today and Gold falls below $5.300 an ounce, after having increased its value by 20% in the last month alone and nearly doubled over the last year. Silver, for its part, lost 4% but is still comfortably holding above $100 an ounce, currently trading around $112. Also on the commodities front, noteworthy is the weekly plunge in natural gas, which lost a quarter of its value (but is recovering slightly today), and the surge in wool, which rose by 7%.
