A surprise Mario Draghi cut interest rates from 0,5% to 0,25%. The stock exchanges reacted with an upward flare and then retreated, despite Draghi having assured us that we are not in deflation. The worst is Piazza Affari which, after a jump of almost 1%, reversed course and closed down by 2,07% at 18.863 points.
Negative even if with contained drops also Paris -0,14%, London -0,72%, Madrid -0,9%, while Frankfurt rose by +0,44%. The Btp bund spread fell to 240 basis points after Draghi's press conference, after also benefiting from the Spanish state auction maturing in 2018, 2023 and 2026 for a total of 4,034 billion euros which recorded a sharp drop in rates. In particular, on the ten-year Bonos, the average yield fell to its lowest level since September 2010, at 4,164% from the previous 4,269%. In Spain, positive signs also came from the data on industrial production in September which returned to growth for the first time since 2011, beating market expectations, recording +1,4% on an annual basis, after -2,1% in August.
The decision to cut the cost of borrowing was warmly welcomed by the IMF which believes it can "help support the nascent recovery in the euro area” and judges it “fully justified by the weakness of the inflation dynamics and by the substantial stagnation of the economy”. On the operator front, there is probably disappointment because the ECB board has not talked about a new Ltro, even if the market does not exclude that it will arrive soon. The euro-dollar exchange rate fell by 0,9% to 1,3388 while WTI oil also fell by 0,95%. Gold dropped 0,6% to 1.309 dollars a barrel.
From United States in the meantime, the macro indications that arrived today led us to think that tapering could start sooner than expected. In fact, US GDP accelerated surprisingly in the third quarter, rising by 2,8% from 2,5% in the previous three months. This is the best result of 2013. US jobless claims fell 9.000 to 336.000 last week. Twitter is rallying on Wall Street, trading at $50 a share, up 92% from its $26 offering price.
In Piazza Affari the worst stock is the Bpm -4,99% after Standard & Poor's cut its rating, Mps -3,49% and Unicredit -3,34% are also bad. Among the worst stocks of the Ftse Mib also Saipem -4,54% and Telecom Italia -4,26% on the day of the board meeting on the accounts and on the plan. In evidence on the Ftse Mib Pirelli +2,78% which continues the race after the accounts, Cnh Industrial +1,45%, Prysmian +0,93%, Fiat +0,88%. Rcs collapses by 6,07%. The controversy over the sale of the central buildings of RCS Mediagroup, approved last Tuesday by the board of directors, without the consent of the directors Piergaetano Marchetti and Attilio Guarneri, also weighs on the stock.
