MILAN STARTS AGAIN, AHEAD OF BOT AND BTP AUCTIONS
CARS RACE IN TOKYO. FACEBOOK, SHOPPING RECORDS
Milan starts from (almost) zero. In the last week the FtseMib index of Piazza Affari fell 4,7%, to nearly wipe out its year-to-date gains, now reduced to a modest 0,8%. The premises for today's session do not appear positive: Europe has yet to absorb the impact of the disappointing US employment figures which have conditioned both the US and Asia.
But, as usual, the spotlight is on debt, on the eve of the last big spring offer of BOTs and BTPs, the most delicate period for the Treasury. Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow they will go to theBot and Btp auction. The Treasury, in particular, has decided to focus on shorter maturities: tomorrow more Bots than maturing ones will go to auction (11 billion against 8,3 billion). Three-year BTPs (2-3 billion bids) and between 1 and 2 billion BTPs over 5 and 15 years will be auctioned on Thursday.
It will therefore be important today to monitor the health of the market after the tensions of the past week: the yield of ten-year BTPs it rose to 5,42% from 5,08% in just four days. The spread with the Bund widened by almost 40 points to 369. The spread of the Spanish Bono with the Bund exceeded 400 points, a level it hadn't touched since last December 12th.
Meanwhile the New York Times puts Italian and Spanish banks in its sights again: the money from the Ltro, the ECB loan, has been too concentrated in the purchases of domestic government bonds: 54 billion of purchases for Italian banks, even 68 billion for the Spanish ones. A slide in sovereign debt, given the figures, would once again have very serious consequences for credit titles.
The long wave of the cold shower of Friday's employment data conditioned the American markets in the Easter Monday session. TO Wall Street the clue Dow Jones -1% fell below the barrier of 13 points (12.929 points). It made the worse Nasdaq -1,08%, still the most lively trading market. L'S&P index closes at -1,14%.
On the contrary, this morning after Monday's sharp declines, Asia is showing signs of recovery. Auto stocks stand out in Tokyo up 0,1%, after a Nomura report underscored the excellent prospects opened up by the decline in the yen and the positive trend of the American market. Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan has unanimously rejected the hypothesis of a new financial stimulus to the economy. Meanwhile, Sony has announced a cut in the workforce: 10 layoffs, 6% of the total, will be made by the end of 2012. Half of the cuts are linked to the cessation of some loss-making businesses, such as small and medium-sized LCD screens .
In decline Hong Kong -1,11% and Chinese markets: an unexpected Chinese trade surplus in March called into question the easing of Beijing's monetary tightening. The surge in inflation, which has risen to 3,6%, also distances the prospect of an injection of liquidity on the markets.
Facebook wastes no time. Yesterday the social network giant announced the purchase for 1 billion dollars (part cash, part shares) of Instagram, the application that allows you to exchange photos via mobile, iPad and, for a few days, also through the Android operating system by Google. The purchase of the start-up (12 employees) falls immediately after the announcement that after the IPO Facebook will be listed on the Nasdaq. Thanks to Instagram, Facebook makes up for its weak point, namely its presence of mobile phones: Instagram, born just two years ago, is the most downloaded application from Apple with more than 30 million users.
Different themes for the day in Piazza Affari.
First of all, the probable surge of RCS. On Friday, the Lombardy healthcare entrepreneur Giuseppe Rotelli, the new owner of the San Raffaele, moved to 16,55% of the capital of Rcs Mediagroup and becomes the first shareholder of the Corriere della Sera publishing house, overtaking Mediobanca (at 13,7 % union) and Fiat (10,3% in the pact). The purchase of the 5,2428% already held by the Toti family of Roman builders cost 53,7 million or approximately 1,4 euros per share: practically double the current stock market price of 0,76 euros, and is acquired without resorting to bank borrowing.
Enter the race for the sale of a stake in Ansaldo Sts and Ansaldo Breda. The Japanese Hitachi seems to be in pole position thanks to a double offer: the purchase of 50 per cent of Ansaldo Breda (today wholly owned by Finmeccanica) and entry into Ansaldo Sts by acquiring 29 per cent from Finmeccanica itself (which holds a 40% while 60% is from the market). To rebalance the Italian presence in Ansaldo Sts, the purchase of a share by the CDP would then be envisaged. But the Chinese of China Southern Rail have also entered the game with an offer for Ansaldo Breda and an expression of interest in Ansaldo Sts.
Juventus in the spotlight. The title promises sparks for a double positive piece of news: the announcement of the three-year sponsorship contract by the Jeep brand (35 million) and the surprise overtaking of Milan in the league.
Stm instead found a nasty surprise in the Easter egg. The international arbitral tribunal (ICC) ruled that the joint venture will have to pay 59 million dollars to the Dutch Nxp. The ruling concerns a dispute relating to "less use charges" by Stm to be included in the price of the silicon wafers supplied by Nxp between October 2008 and the end of 2009. Stm says it is confident it will be able to overturn the ruling on appeal in a second arbitration which will begin in June 2012. The result of the first sentence, according to estimates by Stm, will be reflected in the results for the first quarter of 2012 with a negative impact on the gross margin of approximately 2,6 percentage points. So, as a result of this unexpected exceptional charge, STMicroelectronics is lowering its previously announced Q30,4 guidance to approximately 1,5%, plus or minus XNUMX percentage points.
The Gabetti real estate group received a binding offer on Friday from the Marcegaglia group and Giancarlo Giordano (through Acosta) which will conclude with a corporate reorganization with a capital increase of 32 million euros. This was announced in a Gabetti press release. The operation provides for an agreement with the creditor banks to resort to article 182 bis of the bankruptcy law and the division of the Gabetti group into two "business units": one for services to operators and one dedicated to sales.
The operation proposed by Marcegaglia and Acosta (majority shareholders of the group with 15% of the shares and 20% plus a connected 3,7%) envisages, among other things, "the complete separation between the companies that currently carry out the activities of real estate brokerage and provision of technical services to support for operators in the real estate sector (Services Business Unit) and companies that carry out management and sale of the real estate portfolio and management and recovery of the loan portfolio for mortgages (Bu Investment)".
