From Asia to Europe to America, a deep red dyes the international stock exchanges, all in sharp declines due to the new escalation of trade tensions between the United States and China.
Donald Trump has decided to up the ante again. According to Wall Street Journal Friday 26 June the US will announce the introduction of restrictions which will prevent companies with more than 25% of Chinese-owned capital from investing in companies belonging to what the White House defines as "industrially significant technologies". The new limits will be accompanied by stringent controls on US exports to Beijing and should enter into force on July 6, the day after the new $50 billion tariffs on Chinese imports. To emphasize that in the afternoon the Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, explained that the announcement coming from Washington "will not be specific to China but to all the countries that steal US technology".
The no-holds-barred battle between the United States, the European Union and China weighs down the Stock Exchanges. In the old continent it is heavy business square, penalized by the uncertainty on the issue of migrants and weighed down by Prysmian, Unipol, Stm and Tenaris which have accumulated discounts of between 4 and 10%. The Ftse Mib closes trading with a loss of 2,44% to 21.355 points. However, he wears the black shirt Frankfurt (-2,46%) affected by the drop in the Ifo index on business confidence which fell in June to 101,8 from 102,2 in the previous month. Down too Paris (-1,92%) And Madrid (-1,78%). Outside the Eurozone they are not even saved London (-2,2%) And Zurich (-1,8%).
From one side of the ocean to the other, Wall Street travels at lows for the day. Sales mainly affect – and not surprisingly – the nasdaq, down by more than 2% on the news coming from the White House concerning precisely Hi-Tech companies. Bad too Dow Jones and S & P 500, both down by 1,4%. On the Nyse, the thud of Harley Davidson (-5,1%) which just today announced the decision of move part of its production out of the US in order to stem the effects of the tariffs imposed by the EU in response to the increases in tariffs on steel and aluminum wanted by Trump.
Returning to Europe, the trade war also involves the auto sector. On Friday, the indefatigable US president threatened to impose 20% duties on vehicles imported from Europe, compared to the 2,5% currently paid. The increase in uncertainty about the sector, which also expects a possible "revenge" from Brussels, weighs on the securities of the sector: Daimler -2,7% Volkswagen - 2,5%, bmw -1,8%. Fears do not save fca (-3,08%), despite the group led by Sergio Marchionne being among the least exposed to the effects of possible duties.
In Milan, however, the worst title is Prysmian, dropped 10% after that the revision of the 2018 EBITDA estimates due to the additional costs (50 million) on works for laying the undersea cable between Scotland and Wales, called WesternLink. Black Monday also for Unipol (-6,15%), with the market questioning what will be the next moves of the CEO Carlo Cimbri after the blitz on the shares Bper (-2%) which brought the Bolognese insurance giant to 14,23% of the bank's capital last Friday.
Sharp decline for stm (-4,81%), which together with other technologies pays for the new products made in the USA, and for Tenaris (-4,27%). Bankers down: -3,25% per Intesa Sanpaolo, -3,64% for Bpm bank, -1,93% for Unicredit. None of the Ftse Mib stocks closed the session positively, although the utilities managed, compared to the others, to contain their losses.
Speaking of the other markets, on the currency the single currency strengthens on the greenback with the cross euro/dollar to 1,6961 points. Petroleum down: Brent falls by 1,58% to 74,36 dollars a barrel, Wti drops to 68,52 (-0,1%). Finally the bond: lo spread between Btp and Bund it rises to 250 basis points with a yield of 2,832%.
