The flight from risky assets knocks out banks and drives money into bonds considered safer, reducing yields to historic lows. The Ftse Mib closes sharply down, leaving 3,62% on the ground below 18 points and with a flurry of downward-suspended stocks. Sales also overwhelmed the other European markets but with drops of around 2%: Paris -2,24%, Frankfurt -2,52% and London -1,86%.
Markets are pricing in fears related to the Brexit referendum, the anticipation of next week's meeting of the Fed and the Japanese central bank as well as the Spanish election scheduled for June 26th. Today, among other things, the possible review of Moody's rating on Italy will arrive.
For Jens Weidman, the president of the Bundesbank, if the ECB (of which he is a member of the board) continues to keep interest rates low for much longer, it will risk fueling market volatility.
In today's session, the support of oil was also lacking and in recent sessions it has strung together a series of increases reaching 52 dollars a barrel. Today the WTI drops 2,10% to 49,5 dollars a barrel and Brent 2,12% to 50,85 dollars a barrel.
At the same time, purchases poured in, as we have already seen in recent days, in bunds whose yields have reached new historic lows (-0,017%), in London gilts and in US Treasuries whose yields have fallen to the lowest levels of the last year and a half . Gold continues its run and reaches a three-week high of 1.271 dollars an ounce.
The Btp-Bund spread widens, rising by 2% to 136 basis points and a yield of 1,39%. The Treasury has today allocated 6,5 billion Btp annually with a yield rising to -0,122%.
On the macroeconomic front, the seasonally adjusted industrial production index for April was published in Italy, which increased by 0,5% compared to March. Adjusted for calendar effects, the index increased by 1,8% in April
The greenback strengthened with the euro-dollar exchange rate dropping 0,3% to 1,12829.
Indices on Wall Street are also down. It didn't help that the University of Michigan consumer confidence data came out better than expected in June, although down to 94,3 points. However, Axiall Corp is in the spotlight on the stock lists, which is up sharply: the Texan Westlake Chemical has announced that it will buy Axiall Corp for 3,8 billion dollars in cash offering 33 dollars per share against the 25,81 dollars at which it closed yesterday the Georgia company.
In Piazza Affari, sales affect all sectors but the banking sector suffers particularly. No Ftse Mib stock manages to close in positive territory. At the bottom of the basket is Unipol -6,85%, followed by Yoox -6,57% and a handful of banks: Ubi -6,57%, Bper -6,55% and Bmps -6,51%.
Unicredit -6,37%. The uncertainty linked to the new CEO also weighs on the stock: yesterday the UniCredit board of directors together with the head hunter Egon Zehnder defined the profile of the replacement of the current CEO Ghizzoni, who resigned on May 24th. The Chairman Vita, in an interview with Il Sole 24 Ore, declared that the selection will take time and that the choice of the new CEO could arrive by the end of July. Intesa -4,10% and Banco Popolare -5,20%.
