ALL SPOTLIGHT ON ROD BOT, ASIA BRAKING
IMPREGILO AND FONSAI, THE DAY OF TRUTH'
The mole Economy Minister Vittorio Grilli celebrates his appointment today with his first (so to speak, given his stay in the offices in via XX Settembre) bot auction: 7,5 billion euro of one-year BOTs, an important appointment that will help to understand the attitude of investors towards Italy after the slide in mid-June, when yields came within a whisker of 4% . Judging by the prices recorded on the secondary market, yields should be around 3%. Thanks to the lower tension on the markets (yesterday, however, the German 1,27-year bond was assigned at XNUMX%, its lowest ever) but above all to Mario Draghi's move to zero interest on deposits with the ECB, which induces treasuries to turn to other short/medium jobs.
Confirmation comes from other data: the 5,78-year BTP yields 451%. Spread at 2 basis points, but the recovery of Italian government bonds was broader on short-term maturities, the 25-year BTP fell by 361 basis points to XNUMX basis points.
The euro hardly moved. Among other macroeconomic variables, the rise in agricultural commodities should be noted, caused by the worsening drought in the United States. Authorities have reduced their 2012 corn harvest estimates.
New, heavy alarm signals arriving from Asia. In Tokyo, the Nikkei index falls by 1,25%, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong is worse -1,48%, but the index specialized in Chinese industries loses almost 2%.
The crisis scares emerging economies: surprisingly, the Korean central bank lowered rates yesterday. Brazil did the same (eighth cut in less than a year). The cost of Japanese money has remained unchanged (already set at between 0 and 0,1%) but the Boj has increased the bond purchase plan to reflate the economy. Alarming figures arrive from Beijing from the accounts of car companies. Finally, S&P futures are trading lower.
The Federal Reserve may consider new measures to support the job market and the economy, but some directorate members believe that this should only happen if the recovery loses momentum or inflation drops visibly. Reading the minutes of the last Fed meeting, it emerges that central bankers are divided on new operations to support the economy."'Some members - we read - think that further easing would be necessary to promote growth in employment and keep inflation within the optimal ranges'.
Wall Street took the downward path after the release of the minutes. The indices thus closed in negative ground for the fifth day in a row: Dow Jones -0,38%, Nasdaq - 0,49%. The Standard & Poor's -0,02% is almost unchanged.
The session of the European stock exchanges had been influenced by the postponement of the decisions of the German Constitutional Court on the appeals against the ESM and by Madrid's harsh anti-deficit maneuver (65 billion between new taxes and cuts) which is already provoking violent reactions on the streets but which was well received by the Stock Exchange +1,1%, the best of the day.
Sitting of discounts for telecommunications, for banks and utilities, luxury and automotive companies are down.
Worst blue chip in Milan is Ferragamo -6,5% but strong reductions also for Tod's: the luxury sector has been brought to its knees by the weak revenue trend of the English Burberry. The slowdown in the Asian economy weighs on all of them, the first customer in the sector.
Industrialists and manufacturing companies are doing badly. Fiat Industrial -4,4% Fiat -1,2% Pirelli -2% Prysmian -2% stm -2,3% Finmeccanica -2,7%.
Mediaset lost 3,2%, due to the sell launched this morning by Société Générale.
Positive ones banks greater, weak the others. UniCredit +2,2%.
Great suspense on the eve of the Impregilo shareholders' meeting which should be held today. Conditional obligatory given the rain of appeals and investigations around the maneuvers of the contenders. Yesterday the Guardia di Finanza, at the request of Consob, seized documents from both Salini and Gavio. Both duelists accuse the other of illegal maneuvers in concert with the other partners.
Meanwhile, the civil court of Milan has rejected the emergency appeal presented by Igli to block the use of the proxies collected by Salini in view of the meeting. This morning, the outcome of the opposing appeal presented by Salini against the Tortona group should be known. Then, perhaps, he will go to vote.
The Lazio Regional Administrative Court rejected the appeal presented by Sator and Palladio against Isvap's green light to Finsoe and Unipol for the acquisition of Fonsai. Today the spotlights are on Consob which will examine the prospectuses of the capital increases of Unipol and Fonsai, the last obstacle at Authority level for the start of the two operations.
La Commission will meet in the morning and the decision should be communicated in the afternoon to the parties who will make it known. The green light to the prospectuses would allow the recapitalizations to start next Monday, marking the kick-start to the process of integration between the two companies. The other essential step concerns the formalization of the guarantee syndicate from which Morgan Stanley withdrew. Finally, in the afternoon, Premafin's board of directors will meet, which could decide the dates of the extraordinary meeting requested by the judicial custodian and the ordinary meeting requested by Paolo Ligresti.
