The specter of a recession is haunting Europe and terrifying markets from London to New York. Piazza Affari closed down by 1,38%, 21.078 points. Tenaris shines, with a 1,2 billion purchase in the USA, but the banks collapse, after a surge in the spread, due more to the decrease in the yield of the Bund below zero, than to an increase in the yield of the BTP, stuck at 2.45 %. The difference between Italian and German decennial rises to 247.50 basis points, +3,21%, Investors are looking for safe investments after the fuse lit in the morning on the PMI manufacturing index which collapsed to its lowest since 2012 in Germany and further contraction in the Eurozone. The US PMIs are also below expectations, albeit above 50 points.
Doubts about global growth regain the upper hand, in the week in which the Fed canceled the rate hikes planned for this year and even Mario Draghi's words during the European summit are not enough to dispel them. The ECB president sees protracted weakness and pervasive uncertainty for the single currency area, mainly due to the slowdown in international trade, but believes that the chances of a recession are still low.
Deaf to reassurances, European lists suffer heavy losses: Frankfurt -1,58%; Paris -2,02%; Madrid -1,73%. The worst is London, -2,03%, which still has time for Brexit: the dates set by Brussels are May 22 if Westminster approves the agreement signed by Theresa May by the end of next week or April 12, to decide whether or not to organize participation in the European elections.
On Wall Street things they are no better at the moment and major indices hit two-month lows. It also scares the inversion of a portion of the Treasury yield curve,
The euro is down the threshold of 1,13 against the dollar (1,129) and reverses against the pound, in the 0,854 area. We also note the new collapse of the Turkish lira (-5,3% against the dollar), after the news that international foreign exchange reserves in Istanbul fell by 6,3 billion dollars in just two weeks (as of March 15) . It is the biggest drop since January 2014 when the Turkish central bank raised interest rates to support the currency.
Oil turns red: Brent $66,34 a barrel -2,24%. Gold tonic, close to 1313 dollars an ounce. In Piazza Affari, Tenaris partially offset the sales and appreciated by 2,71%, following the announcement of the acquisition by the Russian Pao Tmk of its US subsidiary Ipsco Tubulars for 1,2 billion dollars after cash and debt.
The utilities hold the levee: Snam +0,31%, Hera +1,03%, Enel +0,97%. Diasorin rose, +0,28%, thanks to a “buy” by Berenberg” which sets the target price at 100 euros.
Sales rain on the banks, starting from Unicredit -4,53%, Ubi -4,48%, Banco Bpm -4,35%. The worst big cap is Saipem -5,02%.
