Wall Street is galloping, while Europe closes the first stock market session of 2018 in contrast. Piazza Affari contains the losses, -0,04%, 21.845 points, with Unipol, +3,27%, in great shape. Madrid holds +0,35%, Paris down -0,45%; Frankfurt -0,36%; London -0,52%,
The euro slows slightly against the dollar, moving away from the highs of the day and is currently trading in the 1,205 zone. Oil is down, but still close to the highest level since the summer of 2015. Brent -0,7%, 66,4 dollars a barrel, anti-government tensions in Iran only partially offset the downward effect of the reopening of the Forties pipeline in the North Sea. Gold 1311,4 dollars an ounce, +0,66%.
The picture drawn by the maco data of the day is positive: the PMI manufacturing indices of the Eurozone and Germany confirm their record levels in December and those of Italy, France and the United Kingdom slow down, but continue to signal strong expansion. Even in the US, the activity of private sector companies rose more than expected in December.
The effects are unloaded negatively on the bond market, weighed down, in the EU, also by the words of the economist Benoit Coeure, member of the Executive Board of the ECB, according to which the strength of the economic expansion in the Eurozone induces confidence in the achievement of the target of the close to 2% in the medium term: “Markets need to understand that Quantitative Easing will not last forever” and “there is a reasonable possibility” that the extension of the asset purchase program by Frankfurt announced in October “May it be the last”. In the meantime, the reduction of monthly purchases from 60 to 30 billion euros will start with this month.
In this context and with the addition of the unknown element of the political elections in March, the yield of the 10-year BTP Italia rises to 2,10% and the spread with the Bund rises to 163.70 basis points, +5,54%.
On the equity front, the best blue chip is Unipol, with volumes double the average, also supported by the confirmation of the 'outperform' recommendation by Mediobanca with a target price of €4,88.
Fiat did well, +1,68%, which reversed course during the day and regained excellent momentum, despite the sector being weak at European level due to bad data on registrations. Purchases on Leonardo +1,61%; Stm +1,26%; Buzzi +1,47%. The biggest decreases are for Brembo, -1,89%; Italgas -1,77% and A2a -1,3%; Banca Generali -1,62%; Camparis -1,4%.
Reno De Medici shines in the Star segment, +12,07%. Effervescent Mondadori +5,76%, which is said to be defining a consolidation project on the French market, with the creation of a publishing pole that unites the activities beyond the Alps of the publishing house with Lagardère and Marie Claire.
