The words of the European commissioner Olli Rehn who envisage a reduction in austerity for certain countries and the progress made by Enrico Letta in the formation of the government help Piazza Affari:Milano +0,52%, on a day of subtle exchanges for Liberation Day. Frankfurt +0,95% and London +0,17% were also positive. The British stock market is also supported by the release of data on the GDP of Great Britain for the first quarter which was better than economists' expectations. Paris closes just below parity -0,06%. However, Madrid fell -0,38% weighed down by data from the Santander bank and unemployment in the first quarter which rose to 27,1%, the highest in the last 37 years. But the words of the European commissioner were fundamental, who argued that for some countries it is now possible to ease European austerity compared to the rigor of recent years.
The data on the initial requests for unemployment benefits in the United States are good: they dropped in the course of the week ending April 20 by 16 thousand units to 339.00, against analysts' expectations for 350 thousand units. The performance is the second best since January 2008. The four-week average dropped by 4.500 units to 357.000. Wall Street opened in positive territory. At the close of Europe the Dow Jones rose by 0,48% and the Nasdaq by 0,72%.
The euro-dollar exchange rate is at 1,3012 and WTI oil at 91,49 dollars a barrel. Gold climbs 2% to 1.453, 10 dollars an ounce. The Btp-bund spead is stable at 277 basis points. Tomorrow on the agenda is the issue of 8 billion BOTs over six months.
At Piazza Affari Finmeccanica loses 3,73%. JpMorgan downgrades rating to underweight. Eni also down -0,83%, which pays first quarter results lower than the consensus estimates due to the drop in hydrocarbon production, the drop in sales prices and the worsening of gas market conditions. The banking sector is little moved. In Spain Santander closed the quarter with profits down 25,9% while Bankia returned to profit.
In evidence Fondiaria-Sai +4,70% following the re-approval of the 2012 financial statements which takes into account Consob's request to restate the 2011 results so as to correct some accounting errors detected by the Commission (re-approval also carried out by Unipol, Premafin , and Milano Assicurazioni).
Fiat rises by 3,8%. Today the Wall Street Journal writes that Sergio Marchionne is evaluating the possibility of listing the entity that will arise from the merger with Chrysler on the New York stock exchange. Buzzi Unicem +3,04%, Ferragamo +2,57% and Parmalat +2,92% also performed well. For Collecchio, the hypothesis of a possible compensation emerges after the sentence of the Court of Rome on the shareholding in the Centrale del Latte of Rome.
