Jerome Powell puts a half point hike in US rates on the table at the Fed meeting on May 4th. Treasury secretary Janet Yellen explains to the meeting of the Monetary Fund that, as soon as possible, the world organization of work will have to be reviewed: no more globalization for everyone, agreements only between friendly countries. Costs will increase, but safety comes first. The markets align with the slogans of Washington, which is aligned on the front of the war on inflation as well as on Russia. And Europe is about to follow suit. A strong and clear message that the markets are recording unequivocally: stocks are slowing down, especially those linked to cheap money, starting with US tech and domestic utilities, bond yields are flying. The real challenge is to prevent the turnaround from turning into a recession.
The Asian Stock Exchanges and the Yuan are down
Pressure from the US central bank is also being felt in Asia. The Morgan Stanley Asia Pacific index, down 1,2%, is at a four-week low. Tokyo's Nikkei, which is not part of this index, lost 1,8%. Kospi of Seoul -1%. BSE Sensex of Mumbai -1%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng -0,6%.
The Csi 300 index of Shanghai and Shenzhen is around parity. But the yuan hits new lows, without the authorities reacting, generous with invitations to Chinese institutional investors (banks, insurance companies and pension funds) to buy shares. Comments Oanda's Jeffrey Halley: “Until markets see the color of Beijing's money, Chinese stocks will remain in trouble.
The future on the S&P index is down. Down the Nasdaq
The S&P500 index future is down 0,3%. Yesterday in the evening the benchmark index of the US stock market closed down by 1,2%, the Nasdaq by 2,1%. Dow Jones -1,05%.
Meta falls, airlines on the rise
The Netflix effect (yesterday still down) hits the so-called Fang. Under fire Alphabet and Amazon, Meta (formerly Facebook) leaves 6,2% on the ground. holds the old economystarting with the airlines.
2,94-year Treasury Notes at 3%, +2018 basis points. New highs since 3,01. The interest rate curve is flattening again: the yield on the five-year Treasury is at XNUMX%.
Musk on the attack despite "poison pills"
Elon Musk has deployed troops to take over Twitter. The shareholders of the social network, without going through the board (which approved anti-climbing poison pills) will be offered 46,5 billion dollars: 25,5 billion will be provided by the banks (Morgan Stanley in the lead) largely with the guarantee of the Tesla shares. The rest will come in cash from the billionaire.
Brent oil down 1%. Gold unchanged at $1.951.
Even the ECB opens to raising rates from July
“Our monetary policy will depend on new data arriving and our evolving assessments of the outlook,” Christine Lagarde said in Washington immediately after Powell, breaking the delay, announced that “a 50 basis point rate hike it is on the table for the May meeting”.
“Inflation – said the president of the ECB – will rise if the prices of energy and other raw materials continue to rise and if there are new bottlenecks in supply”. At that point, "all necessary measures will be taken to fulfill the ECB's mandate to pursue price stability". But before the president, the deputy Luis De Guindos was much more explicit: the ECB, he told Bloomberg, could move as early as July or soon after.
Btp yields at 2,57%, the highest for three years. Euros at 1,09.
The picture drawn by the central bankers was anticipated by the race in bond yields. The German 0,92-year bond rises to +10% and that of the 2,57-year BTP to +2019%, the highest since 165. The spread is stable at 0,31 basis points (+XNUMX%).
De Guindos' words also gave a jolt to the euro, which regained its 1,09 level against the dollar, only to then resize slightly below that threshold (1,084).
Paris leads the price list race. Kering shines
With the exception of Piazza Affari, the stock markets of the Old Continent experienced a positive day driven by the good results arriving from the quarterly reports.
Paris leads the race (+1,36%) in the aftermath of the TV duel between Macron and La Le Pen which, according to the newspapers, was won by the incumbent president.
Kering is up (+2,07%) after the accounts for the quarter (+27,4%), despite the slowdown of Gucci, held back by the closure of Shanghai.
Nestlè +0,9% in Zurich. The company confirmed the objectives for the year.
Frankfurt appreciates by 1%, followed by Madrid (+0,47%) and Amsterdam (+0,46%).
Outside the block, London is colorless, held back by the half-flop of Anglo American: production in the first quarter fell by 10%, estimates for the entire year are lowered.
Only Milan in red, weighed down by utilities
Milan (-0,29% to 24.805 points) was the only market to close negative ground under pressure from utilities held back by the prospect of rate hikes.
Accounts recovering, guidance respected: Saipem soars +11,8%
The list was supported by the leap of Saipem, +11,8%, which started the rescue right from the start with better-than-expected quarterly accounts. The period closed with an annual increase in revenues of 20% to 1,94 billion and a decrease in losses to 98 million from 120 million in the first quarter of 2021.
The courses were also supported by the fact that Saipem reported that by 31 March 2022 the shareholders Eni (-1,6%) and Cdp had paid 646 million euros into the future capital increase account, resulting in a decrease in financial debt. Snam leaves 3,3% on the ground, Terna 2,3%.
Berenberg launches Piaggio +4,1%, Pirelli goes up
Pirelli is confirmed on the shields, +2,63%, after the positive session on the eve. Among the industrials, Interpump (+1,52%) and Stellantis (+0,95%) also rose. Piaggio did well (+4,1%), promoted by Berenberg.
The banks close a moderately positive session, led by Banco Bpm (+0,95%).
