It went badly, but it could have been even worse: the European lists closed in the red, at the end of a negative and at times terrible session. Business Square loses 6,1% and drops to 14.980 basis points, after dropping 11,3% in the early afternoon, with Wall Street immediately in dive.
Similar script in the rest of Europe: Frankfurt -5,26%; Paris -5,75%; Madrid -7,94%; London -4,13%. The new coronavirus is increasingly frightening, while many continental countries follow the path traced first by China and then by Italy in an attempt to stem the infections, closing bars, non-essential shops, museums, theaters and churches.
The data on Chinese industrial production, -13,5% year on year, in the months of January-February at the height of the epidemic in the Asian state does not help optimism. In the US Goldman Sachs expects a 5% contraction in gross domestic product in the second quarter.
Central banks, governments and supranational bodies are moving to deal with the economic consequences of the global health emergency, but nothing seems to give sufficient reassurance, in a picture of the expansion of the disease whose developments and end it is impossible to imagine. The Fed's zeroing of rates over the weekend is not enough, nor is the fact that the International Monetary Fund assures, through its director Kristalina Georgieva, that it is ready to mobilize one trillion through its credit lines. In these hours the finance ministers of the euro area, according to Reuters, could discuss resorting to the European Stability Mechanism, an EU emergency fund with a financial availability of over 400 billion euros, a firepower, which could be used as never before to provide EU-wide fiscal stimulus, even if many capitals disagree. In any case, nothing seems able to stop the bleeding. Almost everything is sold on the markets: gold is moving down to 1508 dollars an ounce. The Petroleum, landslide Brent type: -11,4%, on the ridge of 30 dollars a barrel.
On the currency market the dollar is in retreat: the euro is trading higher at 1,1141. The greenback lost about 2% against the yen and the cross at 105,88.
In any case Piazza Affari improved after that the Italian government has passed the “Cura Italia” decree, a "powerful economic manoeuvre" as Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte defined it: 25 billion in fresh money and the activation of flows for 350 billion. An intervention that contains resources for health care and civil protection, subsidies on mortgages and layoffs in derogation, resources for the self-employed and VAT numbers and the umpteenth rescue of Alitalia. Another measure should arrive in April, thanks to EU funds.
In the end, there are five rising stocks on the main Milanese stock exchange: Ferragamo, +3,64%; Juventus +1,97%; Buzzi +0,68%; Snam +0,37%; Prysmian +0,26%. On the Aim it makes its debut in green Unidata +4,46%, a small telecommunications company active in Lazio.
Among the blue chips in red: Terna leaves 2,72% in the field, despite the fact that Scope and Fitch have confirmed the rating on the company, respectively A- and BBB+.
The biggest losses are those of fca, -14,46%, following the stop production in Italy and Europe. The automotive sector is also weak across Europe. Heavy sitting budget for Leonardo -12,13% and Telecom -12,30%.
Strong selling on banks: Unicredit -12,58%; Mediobanca -11,59%; Ubi -10,65%; Understanding -9,75%. Outside the main list, however, it rears up Creval, + 14,50%.
The bondholder archives a see-saw session and eventually breaks even: spread: 238 basis points, with a 10-year BTP yield of +1,75%. According to two operators interviewed by Reuters, the ECB has intervened in an important way, buying Italian government bonds at a time when the market is seeing a drastic widening of the spread on the Bund and an equally sharp increase in yields.
