The surge in Covid cases in Beijing and the risk of further lockdowns in China are depressing markets today, already stressed by expectations of greater and faster rate hikes by central banks and by the uncertainty created by the war in Ukraine. The picture weighs on oil which falls heavily, while the dollar attracts purchases in a context of risk aversion. Brent loses more than 5,5% and trades below $101 a barrel; Texan crude drops well below 100 dollars and trades at 96,40, still down by around 5,5%.
Sul currency market the single currency touches the lowest since 2020 against the dollar, with the exchange rate in the 1,07 area.
The week in Europe thus opens in the red, with the continental price lists arriving at the finish line in sharp decline, in line with their Asian colleagues. The opening bell is also out of tune on Wall Street, where however Twitter (+4%) remains in the light which, according to press sources, is close to accepting Elon Musk's purchase offer.
If stocks suffer, bonds appear to be recovering, in Europe and the USA, where yields are lower. However, the spread between Italian and German ten-year bonds is growing: 174 basis points, +5,3%, with a rate of 2,59% for the BTP and +0,85% for the Bund.
European price lists in red despite Macron's victory
La victory of Emmanuel Macron the French presidential elections was not enough to reassure investors about the economic outlook, also in the light of some disappointing quarterly results, such as that of Philips, which records a slide of 11,19% on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange -2,52%. Male Paris, -2,01%, weighted by Arcelormittal (-8,35%) and by luxury stocks such as Kering (-4,29%) and Hermes (-3,87%), always attentive to the prospects of the Chinese market. The declines are also biting in Frankfurt -1,59% and London -1,89%. Limit losses Madrid- 0,89%.
Piazza Affari below 24 thousand points with oil and auto in decline, utilities are doing well
Piazza Affari slips to 23.908 points and decreased by 1,53%, due to the substantial sales on oil and automotive stocks, in a session with reduced volumes for the April 25th holiday, with banks closed and online trading only. Good utilities.
At the bottom of the list are Tenaris -6,82%, Saipem -6,44%, Eni -4,79%. And outside the main basket, oil refining companies, such as Saras -7,67% or D'Amico, -7,04%, active in the shipping of black gold, are down.
In the automotive sector, Cnh -5,4%, Iveco -3,34%, Stellantis -2,38% are depressed.
In luxury, Moncler loses -4,68%.
It's Telecom mogia, -2,44%, with the main shareholder Vivendi (+0,22%) who, through the mouth of the managing director Arnaud de Puyfontaine, says that the expression of interest of the Kkr fund has never turned into a concrete offer: "In any case, we have ambitions much more important than Tim's worth."
Sales of Generali, -1,6%, while the showdown of the shareholders' meeting of 29 April is approaching, where two lists will compete for the governance of the company. On the one hand there will be the list with the outgoing board of directors, supported by the first shareholder Mediobanca and on the other that of Caltagirone, which proposes the former Generali manager Luciano Cirinà as CEO candidate, also supported by Leonardo Del Vecchio and the Crt Foundation.
Today the shareholder of the Lion, Deka Investment, announced that it will vote in favor of a new mandate for the current CEO Philippe Donnet.
The blue chip queen of the list is Enel, +1,5%, despite Deutsche Bank, which has dedicated a study to Italian utilities, has cut its target price to 8 euros from 8,5 euros. Reuters writes that the electric giant "is negotiating the sale of Celg-D, its energy distribution company in Brazil, an operation that could reach 2 billion dollars in value, according to three sources familiar with the matter".
Benino A2a +0,25% and Snam +0,08%.
Between banks dissociate themselves from sales in the Banco Bpm sector, +0,65%, while Intesa -1,72% and Unicredit -1,19% are down. Morgan Stanley cut the target price on both, respectively to 3,2 euros from 3,7 euros and 16,5 euros from 19,5 euros.
Raw materials at peak, but palm oil soars
The return of the pandemic in China scares all commodities, not just oil.
The risk of a reduction in demand from Beijing has also caused the collapse of other commodities: in Shanghai futures on aluminum lost 47%, those on rebar steel 15%, those on hot-rolled coils 16,9% , in Dailan iron lost 45%. Precious metals such as gold (-1,1%), silver (-2,3%) and palladium (-3,5%) also fell.
I palm oil prices traded on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange soared nearly 6%, approaching all-time highs and those traded in China climbed 3%. Soybean oil futures traded in Chicago are approaching their highest levels since 2008. These movements have been triggered by the stop, from Thursday 28 April, on the export of palm oil decided by Indonesia, which is the world's largest producer and responsible for approximately 50% of global supplies of this fat widely used in the food industry.
Finally they got off gas prices, returning to pre-war levels. At the Dutch reference hub TTF futures were traded at 97 euro/Mwh in the morning. Russian state energy giant Gazprom said it would supply natural gas to Europe via Ukraine in line with European consumer demands, which increased from yesterday to 68,4 million cubic meters from 51,7 million.
