“Mario Monti enjoys great credibility in Europe, in Washington, in New York and in the rest of the world”. Word of Tim Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury of the United States of America today in Milan to give support to the premier of "save Italy". Monti, for his part, mentioned an active role of the IMF in the plans to relaunch Europe and confirmed the trip to Boston in January to meet again with Barack Obama.
A morning of waiting on the European markets awaiting the appointments of an intense afternoon: at 14 pm the ECB press conference, after the meeting of the directorate in Frankfurt. It is expected the reduction of the reference rate by a quarter of a pointas well as a package of measures to facilitate the circulation of liquidity between banks. And in fact Draghi did not disappoint expectations, cutting interest rates by 0,25% and bringing the refinancing rate to 1%. Almost at the same time, the first delegations of the heads of government of the 27 eurozone countries expected for the intergovernmental meeting arrive in Brussels. Finally, at 18 pm, communication of the indications on the capital of European banks by the EBA.
After a successful start, the Stock exchanges have reversed course awaiting clearer indications: in Milan the FtseMib index falls by 0,96%, Paris practically unchanged (-0,05%), on a par with London (+0,40%) and Frankfurt (+0,36% ).
The worsening also affects i government bonds: 5,96-year BTP yield climbed back to yesterday evening's level at XNUMX%, after falling by mid-morning to 5,87%, lo spread with the Bund again exceeded 400 points, from a low of 382 an hour ago. It should be noted that this morning the London clearing house Lch. Clearnet and the Cassa di Compensazione e Garanzia have reduced the cost applied to the use of Italian government bonds as collateral. The reduction is between 1 and 3,5 percentage points. When the two companies had raised their margins on 9 November, the news had triggered a strong distrust of Italian government bonds, contributing to the surge in yields.
THEeuro it is down against the dollar at 1,338. Also stable Wti oil at 100,9 dollars a barrel.
Fondiaria Sai loses 4% for fear of a new capital increase. Banks are also down: Intesa drops by 2,5%, Unicredit -2%, Banco Popolare -0,4%, MontePaschi -2,8%, Mediobanca -3%, Pop Emilia -3,2%. Generali is unchanged, Unipol is down 0,7%.
Among the industrial, Finmeccanica suffers from the target price cut by Goldman Sachs (to 2,5 euros from 4,5 euros) and fell by 5,8%.
Among the best blue chips, the earnings of Lottomatica +2,9% and Mediolanum +2%. Well Pirelli +1%, while Fiat drops by 1% e Fiat Industrial falls by 1,9%.
Also declining Piaggio -3,2% Saras -3,4% and Benetton -6%. Sharp decline of Diasorin -4,6% for the profit warning of the French competitor BioMerieux.
