Business Square it closed the second session in a row up (+2,43%) and returned with momentum to over 27 thousand points (27.142), lost on November 26 following the first news on the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. They are even more exuberant Amsterdam + 3,51% Frankfurt +2,86% and Paris +2,91%. A little further back Madrid +1,45% and London +1,52%. Purchases in Europe have been sustained since the morning, following the gains of some Asian stock exchanges (Tokyo +1,89%), then accelerated in the afternoon with the opening higher by Wall Street, where the three major indexes are racing and expanding on eve gains. Tech stocks are in the dust (the Nasdaq soars), but also oil, while black gold pushes on the accelerator: Brent +3,9%, 75,95 dollars a barrel; Wti +4,56%, 72,66 dollars a barrel.
In short, the Bull seems to have returned with force to the markets, despite the many banderillas on his side: the global pandemic situation is in fact still alarming; inflation runs high in Europe and the USA, where supply bottlenecks create problems for businesses and are reflected in macro data; The US and Russia are at loggerheads over the Ukrainian issue. At 16 pm, Italian time, the videoconference summit between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin on Ukraine began.
However, the stock markets seem to be focused on positive news. Omicron in particular, according to experts, is more contagious but no more serious than Delta. On the other hand, Beijing is thinking about supporting the economy. President Xi Jinping has assured that the state will help the real estate sector, shaken by the collapse of Evergrande, while the Chinese central bank has decided on a new cut in the value of the reserves that banks are required to hold. A maneuver that is worth at least 190 billion dollars of potential new liquidity and which, explains David Chao of Invesco, "will make it possible to better manage the next real estate crises". The move also helps mining stocks, which shine in Europe today.
In the macroeconomic sphere, Eurostat reports GDP growth in the third quarter of 2,2% in the Eurozone and 2,1% in the EU compared to the previous quarter. In the second quarter of 2021, GDP had grown by 2,2% in the euro area and by 2,1% in the EU. The best results come from Ireland (+4,0%), Italy and Spain (both +2,6%).
However, the German Zew index fell in December, to 29,9 from 31,7 in November. Supply bottlenecks, rising inflation pressures, and added virus concerns are a powerful combination to hurt the outlook.
Overseas the second reading of the US productivity index in the third quarter, was revised from -5% to -5,2% and is the worst drop since 1960. Awaiting the stars and stripes inflation data which will be released on Friday, the WSJ writes that the Fed could anticipate the rate hike already in the spring.
In this context the dollar it appreciates, while the euro weakens, weighed down by the expectations of a tightening by the US central bank more rapidly than by the ECB. The single currency is currently trading down 0,4% to 1,123.
The greater appetite for risk drives investors away from government bonds. The prices of T-Bonds appear to be falling and yields are rising, in particular the ten-year bond rises again towards 1,5%.
Rates also rose in the single currency area and the Italian secondary closed slightly negative. The spread it goes to 129 basis points (+1,45%), with the yield of the ten-year BTP at +0,91% and that of the Bund at -0,38%.
Today, almost all the blue chips shine in the stock market of Piazza Affari. The brightest is stm +5,79, which seems to particularly appreciate Intel's decision to list, in 2022, the subsidiary Mobileye, a company that manufactures components for autonomous driving and of which Stm is a historic partner.
Raise your head nexi + 5,37%.
Luxury is back in the limelight, with Moncler +4,46% which looks at Chinese moves, while the Agnelli galaxy is confirmed as effervescent with Cnh +4,12% and stellantis +3,56%. The Italian-French automotive giant enters the technology challenge, increasingly strategic for electric and self-driving cars, by signing an agreement with Foxconn to design and sell flexible semiconductors for the sector and announcing 30 billion in investments on software and electrification. Banks (Intesa +2,03%; Unicredit +2,42%) and oil stocks are positive
(Eni +2,25%).
Practically on the Ftse Mib it is in red only Telecom -1,44%, which in the meantime has chosen financial advisors to evaluate Kkr's non-binding expression of interest.
