The German economy slows down. Plan B for Cyprus is late. Europe is once again the main problem of finance, as well as of the global economy, capable of canceling out the progress of other areas. The Cyprus effect is felt, in fact, is felt at all latitudes. Asian stocks close their worst week since October. Tokyo leads the decline -1,5%: the new governor Haruhiko Kuroda disappointed in his inauguration speech the expectations of those who were already hoping for new stimulus measures. Other markets were also down, from Hong Kong -0,5% to Seoul.
They fold the US price lists. after Wednesday's rise that pushed the S&P500 index back to near all-time highs. The main Wall Street index lost 0,83% yesterday The Dow Jones is down 0,62%. Sales hit high tech companies the hardest: The Nasdaq fell 0,97%, weighed down by Oracle quarterly data, down 9,7%. Negative day for the European stock exchanges, all down with widespread losses in all sectors. In Piazza Affari, the FtseMib index closed down by 0,5%, the other Stock Exchanges did worse: London -0,7%, Paris -1,4%, Frankfurt -0,9%. The euro is currently trading at 1,2891 against the dollar, on yesterday's lows. Gold up to 1.615 dollars an ounce (+0,5%).
The 6-year Btp/Bund spread drops by 317 basis points to 27. Between Italy and Spain, the differential closes at around 1.000 basis points. Greece's 4-year spread is back below the psychological threshold of 4,5 basis points. Finally, good news has arrived for Spain: the Treasury went on the market with the aim of placing 2015 billion euros of bonds and placed 2,275 billion with yields decreasing compared to previous auctions especially on the shorter part of the curve: 2,54 good yield to XNUMX% from XNUMX%.
CYPRUS, ANOTHER SCARY WEEKEND
The positive notes on the US labor market (requests for new unemployment benefits lower than expected) were not enough to offset the fears of a slowdown in the German economy: the ISM indices in Germany signaled an unexpected slowdown in activity: the The manufacturing index fell to 48,9 in March from 50,5 the previous month, while economists put it at 50,3. The services sector is also in decline.
But the real thorn remains, one week after the Brussels agreement, the case of Cyprus. Times are running out: the banks will reopen on Tuesday, but the ECB will close the credit disbursement taps the day before. By Sunday it will be necessary to finalize a plan B. Work is underway on the creation of a fund into which the island's main assets (including natural gas fields) will be merged against investments by Russia and the Orthodox clergy. Moscow, enraged by the EU diktat on Cyprus current accounts (mostly Russian deposits), in the meantime let it be known that it could convert its reserves into euros.
INSIDE BUSINESS PLACE
On the Stock Exchange, the sectors most affected by yesterday's sales are those most linked to the economic cycle: the European Stoxx index for the automotive sector fell by 1,9%, tech -1,4%. In Milan, Fiat lost 2,4%, Fiat Industrial -0,8%, Pirelli -1,2%. Volkswagen lost 1,7%, Daimler -2,3%. Among industrial stocks, StM fell sharply -2,6%, while Finmeccanica gained 1,9%. Sharp decline of Parmalat -3,7%.
Luxury stocks fell: Ferragamo -2%, Tod's -1,7%, Luxottica -0,6%. In Paris, Lvmh fell by 1,9%. The banks fought: Unicredit -1% and MontePaschi -0,5% fell, Intesa +0,5%, Banco Popolare +1,1% and Ubi +2,3% rose. Among the insurance companies, a heavy drop by Unipol -2,1% which returned yesterday to distribute a dividend. Unipol “under the new perimeter” closed 2012 with a consolidated net profit of €441m, despite the loss of €889m of Premafin, thanks to a benefit of €1.089m deriving from the application of the IFRS3 accounting standard. The consolidated net profit of the stand-alone Unipol group is instead 241 million; a coupon of 0,15 euro per share is envisaged for ordinary shares and 0,17 for savings shares.
Fonsai -0,69% wrote down Mediobanca securities in portfolio by 46 million euro and Generali by 13 million. Among the 188 million of impairment on financial instruments made by Fonsai, 40 million also concerned Alitalia. The balance sheet closed with a loss of 799,6 million. Generali lost 0,4%. Bad day for asset management securities: Mediolanum-3,8%, Azimut -2,6%. Telecom Italia lost 1,5%.
The forthcoming liquidation of trade receivables owed by companies to the public administration could prove to be a positive factor for the Tlc company which boasts around 1 billion in receivables from the public sector. Enel fell by 0,4%. Among the medium-small companies, Prelios ran +5% pending the announcement of the agreement with the banks for the restructuring of the debt. Indesit rose by 2,1% after the board defined the amount of the dividend (20 cents per share).
