Wall Street is traveling again at record levels and the Nasdaq exceeds 15 points for the first time in history (but then slow down); oil is still racing today and Germany's GDP for the second quarter is revised upwards: the European lists, however, do not find a univocal direction in the session and arrive at the closing in no particular order. Piazza Affari stops almost at the levels of the previous day (-0,07%) and remains clinging to 26 thousand points, divided between the increases in industrial and oil stocks and the decreases in utilities, pharma and luxury, while the banks are opposed.
In the rest of Europe, Frankfurt rose by 0,29%, with Amsterdam +0,37% and London +0,16%; Paris -0,28% and Madrid -0,21% are down. At a sector level, travel, energy and technology stocks are in the green, the latter in line with the progress of US big tech and the rebound of the sector in China, which contributes to overall risk appetite.
Also lending a hand is the final approval, yesterday, by the FDA, the authority that supervises drugs in the United States, of the use of the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine against Covid 19; the serums of Moderna and J&J should follow the same procedure in the next few days. This removes an alibi for those who are still reluctant to immunize themselves.
The focus of the week, however, remains on the appointment in Jackson Hole in Wyoming, from Thursday to Saturday, and in particular on the expected speech by the president of the US central bank, Jerome Powell. The symposium, due to the pandemic, will not be attended again this year, a sign that the Delta variant is scary and reverberates its negative effects on the path of the economy. It seems so unlikely that Powell will choose this venue for announcements about starting to curtail asset purchases, although investors will be looking for hints on the possible timing of this inevitable landing. According to Goldman Sachs, the odds of a tapering announcement in November have risen “from 25% to 45%” and while those of a December announcement have dropped “from 55% to 35%”.
In the foreign exchange market, the dollar remained stable against a panel of currencies, close to the five-day low reached yesterday. The euro changes on yesterday's levels in the 1,174 area. Germany's GDP contributes to supporting the single currency which, in the second reading released today by the Berlin statistics office, has been revised upwards and marks +1,6% in the second quarter compared to the previous one and +9,4% on an annual basis (+1,5% and +9,2% of the preliminary estimate).
After the losses of the last eighth, the recovery of oil continues: the November 2021 Brent future rises by around 2,6% to the area of 70,15 dollars a barrel, while Texan crude, in October 2021, appreciates by around 2,4% at $67,22. The positive outlook on demand would be mainly attributable to an interruption of production in Mexico (due to some fires on a platform that also caused five victims), the definitive approval of the Pfizer vaccine in the US and the fact that the pandemic is limited in China to cases mostly imported from abroad.
Gold, however, remains at the window, trading at around 1806 dollars an ounce. Metal futures are almost all up.
In Piazza Affari, the queen of the price list, among the blue chips, is Leonardo, +2,81%, after the announcement of the partnership agreement with Northrop Grumman to supply pointers/trackers for the Common infra-red countermeasures (Circm) program of the United States Army. The five-year agreement, explains a note, "will allow the company to supply more than 1.200 pointers/trackers at full capacity in addition to the 500 already delivered".
Interest in the stock was also aroused by the rumors relating to an interest by Fincantieri (-0,41%) in the perimeter of the former Oto Melara, now controlled by Leonardo and merged into the Defense Systems division in 2016. Cnh + closed in progress 1,17%; Post +0,87%; Prismian +0,86%; Saipem +0,84%. Among the banks Unicredit shines +0,83%, but Mediobanca -0,5%, Banco Bpm -0,3%, Intesa -0,25% are down. The worst performances of the day are Amplifon -1,94%; A2a -1,82%; Moncler -1,51%; Snam -1,06%; Diasorin -0,83%.
In slight progress Stellantis +0,26%, which has created a joint venture with Foxconn for the development of the intelligent passenger compartment. Bonds closed in green: the spread between Italian and German ten-year bonds fell to 105 basis points (-1,21%); the rate of the BTP is +0,57% and that of the Bind -0,47%.
In the meantime, the German finance agency has auctioned 2,48 billion euros of Bund maturing November 2028. The Bundesbank announced it, specifying that, against a 3 billion offer, requests for 3,853 billion were received and accepted for 2,48 billion. The yield fell to -0,65% from -0,58% in the previous auction.
Lastly, during the last week, the ECB bought government bonds as part of the Pepp program for 16,58 billion euros to 1313,53 billion euros. As regards traditional QE, in the eighth the ECB bought government bonds for 3,07 billion euros to 2440,41 billion while net purchases of corporate bonds increased by 0,924 billion to 290,209 billion. Finally, the ECB made net purchases of covered bonds for 344 million to 294,813 while net purchases of APS were negative by 218 million to 28,148 billion.
