In the last day of a war diary week, a highly volatile session took place on the markets. But those who hoped for an optimistic ending, even in the wake of some optimistic ideas coming from the USA, had to change their minds again. In the last half hour of trading, in the wake of worsening moods on Wall Street, the Stock Exchanges accelerated downwards, all closing in the red: the Ftse Mib lost 0,7% (limiting the losses compared to the other exchanges), the Ftse 100 2,71%, the Dax 2,78%, the Cac 1,26%.
The figure, however, is not definitive, because in the end, like yesterday, Piazza Affari experienced technical problems and therefore in the last few minutes of trading, the Ftse Mib was not updated. The spread between ten-year BTPs and German bunds remains dangerously in the 378 basis points area, although this morning's record tensions have eased which brought the differential up to 416 basis points.
The risk premium of Spanish bonds has shown to travel steadily below 370 basis points. The purchase program by the ECB may have also contributed to easing tensions on government bonds in the euro area which, said President Jean Claude Trichet, “is continuing, we discuss it at every summit. We never said it was interrupted, everything is fully transparent, you will see what we will do”. The European Central Bank will do everything to ensure the stability of the euro area, said EU Economy Commissioner Olli Rehn. "Italy and Spain - he reassured - will not need any bailout plan" but he asked the Italy to accelerate reforms.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti and Undersecretary to the Prime Minister Gianni Letta have called a press conference at Palazzo Chigi for 19 pm. Meanwhile, the expected data on US unemployment arrived today from the USA, the first positive after a series of disappointing macroeconomic data that increased fears of a new recession in the US. Surprisingly, the unemployment rate in July fell from 9,2% to 9,1% and the non farm payrolls showed the creation of 117 thousand jobs in the non-farm sector from the previous 46 thousand (revised from 18 thousand).
Both figures are better than expected. The euro/dollar exchange rate rose to a session high above 1,42 and Wal Street started off positive. But it returned to the red (Dow Jones travels down by 1,40% and the Nasdaq by 5,72%) and the European stocks followed closely. The stock market reaction, which at first seemed more promising (Milan rose by 2%), was also slowed down by the reasons for the decline in the number of unemployed: the decrease in the number of unemployed to 9,1% was due to the increase in number of discouraged, there are 193.000 Americans who have given up looking for a job. The percentage of the active population has therefore fallen to 58,1%, the lowest level since July 1983. Now attention moves to the meeting of the Federal Reserve, scheduled for next August 9th.
PASSERA INSTILLS CONFIDENCE IN INTESA SANPAOLO
UBS AT 2,06% OF BANCO POPOLARE
Intesa Sanpaolo (+5,61%) is running despite the net profit down by 17% to 1,4 billion thanks to the reassurances of CEO Corrado Passera on the "excellent levels of liquidity" and results in line with the plan. A strong sign of confidence in the bank, on the other hand, came from the three top managers with the acquisition of group shares for 1,5 million euro: Corrado Passera and the two general managers Marco Morelli and Gaetano Micciché bought 500 thousand shares each. A leap also for Banco Popolare, after opening lower and being suspended from trading. The stock closed the session with an increase of 3,91%. On 28 July, it was learned from Consob communications, Ubs entered the capital with 2,060%. On the day of the results, Assicurazioni Generali fell by 3,50%
TELECOM REVENUES RISE
MEDIASET UP 3,86%
Telecom Italia rises by 5,30%. The results of the half-year which see a 10% leap in revenues. and a net loss of €2 billion following impairment losses of €3,2 billion. Excluding the negative effect of the write-down, the profit would amount to 1.169 million euros, in line with the previous year. Ebitda rises by 4,3% to 5,977 billion, from 5,93 billion of the average forecast "thanks to Brazil", underlines the study of a foreign investment bank. Mediaset also did well (+3,86%), following the comments of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (I would strongly invest in my companies which continue to make profits) and Buzzi Unicem (4,86%) which also released the half-yearly Today. Among the worst are Tenaris (-6,13%), Saipem (-5,31%), Pirelli (-6,18%), Exor (-5,76%) Lottomatica (-5,54%)
