The pandemic recession is scary again. European lists close down, while Wall Street proceeds in the red and Bill Gates warns: either the US closes or it will be disaster. Piazza Affari loses 2,97% e it stops at 16.544 points, dragged down by Exor. Even the banks remain in a negative wake after the call from the ECB not to distribute dividends. The sector ballasts all European markets: Frankfurt -3,99%; Paris -4,3%; Madrid -2,92%. Outside the Eurozone London -3,73%; Zurich -1,47%.
Wall Street suffers, even today in decline in the wake of Donald Trump's words: the next two or three weeks will be very difficult for the country in terms of infections and deaths. The brilliant founder of Microsoft also makes himself heard who, in a comment on the Washington Post, warns: 'national lockdown' and univocal national policy on the epidemic or it will be a catastrophe.
The dramatic situation is reflected in the macro data: after the historic leap in claims for unemployment benefits (+3 million) last week, today the monthly report prepared by Macroeconomics Advisers and by the agency that prepares payroll Automatic Data Processing, reveals that employment contracted in March (-27.000 jobs against forecasts for a -125.000) and the ISM manufacturing index stood at 49,1 points, down from 50,1 points the month before (below 50 is economic contraction).
The picture is worse in Europe, where the epidemic started earlier: the Eurozone PMI dropped in March to 44,5 in March from 49,2 in February. In Italy, the first country to experience the emergency, the manufacturing PMI collapsed to 40,3 points, the lowest since 2009, from 48,7 in February. Istat has announced that in April it will not disclose data on consumer and business confidence, due to "operational difficulties" related to the emergency.
If this is the photograph, the film on the immediate future does not look rosy and investors prefer to hoard dollars. The greenback continues to strengthen against major currencies. The euro trades at 1,093. Gold, after deflating somewhat following the news that the Russian Central Bank has decided to stop buying bullion, ending a ten-year program of interventions on the raw material market, goes up slightly and trades at 1603,55 dollars the ounce.
Brent collapses, -5,12%, 25 dollars a barrel. The WTI, on the other hand, is stable at 20,55 dollars a barrel, after having dropped below 20 dollars following the jump in American weekly inventories. On the main price list of Piazza Affari there are only three positive titles. Atlantia still shines, +4,99% in view of an agreement with the government. Cnh +2,03% and Prysmian +1,82% up-
In black Exor knitwear -7,47%. Pirelli collapses -6,34%, after an uphill start in the wake of theannouncement by Brembo (-1,84%) to hold 2,43% of the share capital. The utilities lose, starting with Snam -7,33%, Italgas -5,91%; Terna -5,44%; Enel -4,28%. Banks in the red, with the declines led by Unicredit -4,03%.
Sales hit bonds: the spread rises to 200 basis points (+1,48%), the yield on the Italian 1,53-year bond is XNUMX%. Meanwhile, work continues on measures to support businesses and citizens, while some hackers attacked the INPS website forcing it to suspend its activity today, just as thousands of users were starting to apply for subsidies.
