Asia too paid tribute to the English variant of the pandemic today. But the impact, devastating yesterday in the Old Continent and opening in New York (-2%), has lost strength as the hours go by. Europe is preparing for mass vaccination from day 27, the US to distribute 600 dollars each plus aid to the unemployed which will allow 5 million Americans to "avoid ending up in the worst poverty", reads the magazine Mother Jones.
THE VACCINE IN EUROPE IS ON THE WAY
But the most obvious effect concerns Brexit. From London, exhausted by the blockade of goods and travelers (Hong Kong has also closed its borders to the former motherland) there are signals to close the game as long as the EU accepts a 30% cut in fishing rights in its territorial waters. Earlier, up until hours earlier, Boris Johnson's government had said it would not budge from a 60% cut. The distance is close, because Brussels says it is ready to accept a 25% cut. At Christmas you can celebrate with scallops and scallops.
Stock markets in Asia Pacific almost all down this morning, in the aftermath of the worst session in the last three weeks of the MSCI World, the world's super index of shares. Above all, the Nikkei of Tokyo (-1%) and the S&P ASX 200 of Sydney (-1,2%) fell. Kospi of Seoul -0,4%, Hang Seng of Hong Kong -0,1%. On parity the CSI 300 of the Shanghai and Shenzen price lists.
The dollar is appreciating on the back of lower risk appetite, but the US currency's strong rally at the start of the week has slowed. The dollar index, a gauge of dollar strength, was up 0,2% to 90,7 this morning from a peak of 91 reached about twenty-four hours ago.
The yen, Asia's safe haven asset, weakens. Hours of great volatility for the euro-sterling exchange rate, which jumped yesterday morning to 0,92, but dropped sharply in the evening, when it became known of a new proposal made by Great Britain in the negotiations with the European Union.
Small changes in closing on Wall Street after the negative start. The S&P 500 finished down 0,4% yesterday after trading down about 2%. The Dow Jones rose slightly, thanks to the rally of banks (+2,6%) triggered by the go-ahead for buybacks and dividends. Goldman Sachs climbed 6,1%. The Nasdaq was down slightly, weighed down by the crash of Tesla (-6,5%) on the day of its debut in the S&P500.
WASHINGTON THINKS OF A NEW AID PLAN
Tonight the United States Senate voted 92 against 6 in favor of the law that provides aid for 900 billion dollars to the unemployed, families and businesses: there is no support for counties and states, as the Democrats would have liked, who have already said of wanting to get to work on a new extraordinary intervention law. The new round of federal disbursements will be directed and managed by Janet Yellen, the former president of the Federal Reserve called by Joe Biden to manage the Treasury. The current secretary, Steve Mnuchin, has assured that the $600 checks will go out next week.
Brent oil loses 0,7% to 50,6 dollars a barrel; yesterday it had lost 2,7%.
VIRUSES AND BREXIT, EVEN EUROPE AT RISK
"A no-deal Brexit at the end of the year would bring sterling towards parity against the euro." Thus, in the most dramatic moment of the session, Ulrich Leuchtmann, financial analyst at Commerzbank. An exaggerated alarm but which clearly testifies to the distrust that inspires the United Kingdom, under the pressure of the English variant of the virus and the obstinacy with which Boris Johnson continued to refuse a postponement of Brexit. To compensate at least in part for the negative effect, the positive scientific opinion on the use of the Pfizer BioNtech vaccine by the European Medicines Agency arrived in the afternoon.
BUSINESS DOWN 4%, THEN RECOVER
Piazza Affari, down by a good 4% at 12, partially recovered positions in the afternoon. Milan, -2,57% at the end, drops to 21.410 points. Similar losses also in Frankfurt (-2,84%) and Paris (-2,43%). Worst of all Madrid (-3,03%).
London dropped 1,79%, while the pound wobbles under the blows of the news. The exchange rate slipped in the afternoon to 1,33, down by 1,25% against the greenback. The euro is also down, with the cross around 1,222.
TRAVELS AND OILS COLLAPSE. ENI -4,4%
Stocks in the travel sector in particular suffered. IAG, parent company of British Airways, loses 9%. Cruise giant Carnival plunged 10% before recovering in the afternoon to close -1,5%.
Oil companies are also under fire: losses of more than 4% for BP and Total. Shell (-5,9%) was also weighed down by a new write-down from 3,5 to 4,5 billion dollars of its oil and gas assets. Eni (-4,37%) signed a concession contract for the acquisition of a 70% stake in exploration block 3, located in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.
SPREAD AT 112, 0,54 YEARS XNUMX%
Final session below parity for BTPs, whose appeal is significantly reduced in parallel with the growing pessimism that prevails among investors in response to the bad news on the pandemic front and the Brexit impasse. The spread between Italian and German ten-year bonds rises to 112 basis points (+1,31%) and the BTP rate rises to +0,54%.
Thus, the yield of Italian government bonds remains attractive when compared to the German ones. And that's not all: the five-year BTP yields about double the Spanish and Portuguese equivalent.
DIASORIN RISES, CNH INDUSTRIAL SHINES
Very few stocks are in positive territory. Among these Diasorin (+0,59%), which benefits from the renewed importance of Covid diagnostic tests in the new pandemic context.
However, the pink jersey certainly belongs to Cnh Industrial (+1,1%). Since the beginning of November, with the discovery of vaccines, the focus on the green economy and the rotation of the markets towards stocks penalized by Covid-19, the Exor galaxy group has rallied by almost 50%. Deutsche Bank analysts recently updated their valuation on the stock to buy and raised the target price.
BRUSSELS GIVES THE G-LIGHT TO STELLANTIS
Fiat Chrysler closed down, -2,06%, on the day of European green light for fusion from 38 billion with Psa for the birth of Stellantis. The go-ahead was granted after an agreement with Japanese rival Toyota Motor to remove EU competition fears. On January 4th yes
will meet the shareholders' meetings of the two companies to approve the operation.
UNICREDIT UNDER FIRE, MUSTIER RENOUNCING GOODNESS
Among the banks, only Fineco (+0,12%) closed with a plus sign. Unicredit was down sharply (-3,91%): in the last 30 days the stock dropped 12,41%. The bank communicated that Mustier "will leave the Group without any severance pay or any other severance indemnity, other than those required by law/collective labor agreement": Mustier also waives any claim against the Bank and the Group.
Yesterday, on the other hand, an amendment to the maneuver was approved which provides that the Minister of Economy Gualtieri must communicate in advance to Parliament before privatizing Monte Paschi. Fitch changed the rating to negative from "evolving".
Intesa Sanpaolo (-3,8%) securitized a portfolio of non-performing loans of the parent company with a gross value of approximately 4,3 billion and 1,2 billion net, which complies with the regulatory requirements for the issue of the Gacs guarantee.
TELECOM, ENEL AND GENERALI, A TRIO OF DISCOUNTS
Generali -3,5%, Unipol -3,2%, Unipol Sai -3%. The European regulator has urged the companies to be very cautious in the distribution of the dividend. Italian companies are financially solid and should have no problems distributing the coupon.
Telecom (-3,74%) and Enel (-3,73%) were also among the ten biggest drops of the day.
Out of the main basket, Autogrill -4% due to exposure to the UK market.
ERG EXITS HYDROELECTRIC, INDIAN ORDER FOR MAIRE
Erg (+5%) is evaluating a possible double sale which would include hydroelectric and natural gas assets, for a valuation that could exceed 1 billion euro,
Maire Tecnimont (-5%) received a 255 million dollar order in India. Cy4gate +7%.
GIGLIO PLACES 18%, MORGAN STANLEY IN OVS
Giglio Group has started the placement of 18% of the capital with institutional investors.
Morgan Stanley controls a 4,266% stake in Ovs.
