A new day of passion opens. The Tokyo Stock Exchange is down 4,8% again this morning. Japanese equities suffer from the race for safe havens triggered by fears about global growth: purchases have thus poured into the yen, which has risen to 112 against the dollar, weighing on the prospects of Japanese exporting companies, but also on the Bund, with the spread Btp-Bund which broke 150 points. Today is the last day of closure for Asian price lists for the Chinese New Year.
Ecofin meets in Brussels, attended by Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan, while in Rome, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi meets the President of the European Parliament, Martin Shulz. And the market is looking at the important macroeconomic data on the calendar, among which the data on the GDP trend in the fourth quarter in Italy, Germany and the entire Eurozone stand out. The numbers on retail sales and consumer confidence from the University of Michigan are expected from the US. New York Federal Reserve Releases Fourth Quarter Household Debt Report
OIL BOUNCES
Yesterday on Wall Street the Dow Jones lost 1,6% and the S&P500 1,23%. Indices widened losses as Crude fell. Also yesterday, the WTI fell by 4,12%, to 26,32 dollars a barrel, Brent by 2,33%, archiving a very short passage in positive territory after the rumors reported by international agencies regarding the hypothesis of an intervention by some OPEC countries on current production levels. According to rumors circulated, some cartel countries are trying to reach an agreement that would also involve non-OPEC producers to freeze crude oil production at current levels.
Today, WTI oil rebounded by 4,62%, to 27,42 dollars a barrel, and Brent by 4,46%, to 31,4 dollars a barrel. Gold slows down and this morning it traces back by 0,17% to 1244,56 dollars an ounce.
Yesterday the avalanche swept the European stock exchanges: the Ftse Mib collapsed by 5,63% (below 16 thousand points), London -2,39%, Frankfurt -2,92% and Paris -4,05%.
TARGETED BANKS
The sell-off again involved financial and energy stocks. In Paris, sales hit Socgen after the bank said it could not confirm profitability targets for 2016. Banks are under fire, Credit Suisse is now at a 27-year low.
In Italy, at the bottom of the Ftse Mib there are above all credit institutions: Ubi Banca -12,11%, Bmps -9,88% after the managing director of Ubi, Victor Massiah, closed the door to possible mergers in particular with the Sienese bank. Bfor -9,59%. Sales also on Mediobanca (-5,27%) despite the accounts being judged positively by analysts.
According to Economy Minister Padoan, the sales are motivated by the slowdown in world GDP, not by a specific Italian factor or by the bail-in rules. According to some rumors circulating on the market, the ECB is considering including purchases of bank stocks in the expansion of QE in March.
Among the worst blue chips also Saipem, -12,02% on the last day of the capital increase, and Cnh, -9,14%.
Only A2A (+0,83%) closes on the Ftse Mib in positive territory while Fidia (+6,16), Landi Renzo (+2,44%) and Bolzoni (+1,24%) stand out on the Star.
