After a volatile morning, the European stock exchanges decisively take the downward path. The pessimism was triggered when some press rumors extended the scandal over the manipulation of harmful gas emissions that engulfed the German company Volkswagen to the BMW car manufacturer. The magazine "Auto Bild" had in fact advanced the indiscretion that even BMW, with the diesel X3 model, did not comply with European anti-pollution regulations. The reply of the Bavarian group lasts: "At BMW we do not cheat and we obviously comply with the legal requirements in all countries and pass all the local tests".
At the closing, almost all the main lists recorded losses above 2%. The exception is London which manages to limit the decline to -1,33. Milan loses 2,31%, Paris 2,17% and Frankfurt 2,10%. In the intraday, the German stock price fell below 9400 points, the lowest level of the year, a level never reached since December 2014. In the face of the Volkswagen scandal, the diffusion of the September Ifo index which stood at 108,5 could do nothing about sentiment , above expectations but which clearly does not reflect the repercussions that the Volkswagen affair will have on industry and the economy. The German Transport Minister, Alexander Dobrindt, speaking to the press in Berlin, reported among other things that "there are also cars with 1,6 and 2-litre diesel engines that are also affected by the problem in Europe". And the trap of the rating agencies has also arrived. Moody's downgraded Volkswagen's creditworthiness outlook to negative from stable.
The souped-up diesel engine scandal also hit Tokyo which finished down 2,76% with industry stocks including Mazda all hit by sales. But another tile also came from the USA where the giant Caterpillar, specialized in the construction of earthmoving machines often used as a barometer of economic activity, has announced a cut in its 2015 revenue estimates and cost reduction operations which will probably result in 10.000 redundancies. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones dropped 1,27%, the S&P500 1,21%. Despite several better than expected results on the macroeconomic front.
In the United States, initial jobless claims rose by 3 to 267 in the week ending September 19, but less than expected by economists who estimated claims for 275. US new home sales rose 5,7% from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted 0,552 million units in August, better than analysts' expectations for a limited 1,6% increase.
August durable goods orders fell 2% against expectations for a 2,5% decline. WTI oil rose by 0,58% to 44,74 dollars a barrel. The euro-dollar exchange rate rose by 0,67%. In Italy, Moody's has raised its GDP growth estimates to +0,7% for 2015 and 1,2% for 2016. ISTAT communicated that retail sales in July showed an increase of 0,4, 1,7% quarterly (seasonally adjusted index) and 114% trend (raw index), maintaining a growth rate similar to that recorded the previous month. The Btp/bund spread closed slightly at XNUMX basis points.
In Piazza Affari, sales hit the car as expected with FCA plummeting by 7,5% but also CNH Industrial -5,7% which hits its lowest level since October 2014, well below 6 euros in the wake of bad news from Caterpillar . Second worst stock Buzzi Unicem in the wake of the construction sector throughout Europe. Among the worst of the Ftse Mib also Mediaset -4,79% and Exor -4,58%.
Only three blue-chip stocks finished in positive territory. The best is Bmps +4,45%, after an intraday leap of over 8%, thanks to the agreement reached with Nomura on the Alexandria derivative. According to analysts, the extinction of Alexandria would have cost Banca MPS 799 million euros, however the agreement between MPS and Nomura has set the disbursement that the Sienese bank will have to bear at 359 million euros, i.e. 45% of the original cost . On the income statement, the agreement had an extraordinary negative impact of 88 million euros after tax for this year but, said Bernardo Mingrone, outgoing CFO of the Sienese bank, in the conference with analysts, Banca MPS maintains its return target to profit in 2015. Opening the conference call, CEO Fabrizio Viola commented that the agreement "makes him confident in the bank's ability to continue to meet the ECB's capital requirements". Positive, albeit with marginal gains, also Mediobanca +0,12% and Azimut Holding +0,05%.
