The US economy continues to enjoy good health, as confirmed by labor market data on Friday. And the stock exchanges are celebrating, despite concerns about the consequences of the ongoing clash on interest rates between China and the US.
The pound trades at 1,3292 against the dollar, but weakens against the euro after Brexit minister David Davis resigned last night in protest against the government's choice to espouse Prime Minister Theresa May's soft line towards Brussels . The single currency also strengthened against the dollar to 1,176, from +0,5% last week. According to Investec economist Philip Shaw, the appreciation of the euro will continue up to 1,22.
Spotlights turned on this morning in Europe on the German trade balance data and on the Sentix index, which measures the confidence of European investors.
CHINA WIDES DOWN TO INVEST IN THE STOCK EXCHANGES
The week of Asian stock markets opens on positive ground, also under the influence of indications from China. Beijing, looking for allies against Donald Trump, has announced the arrival of measures to facilitate foreign purchases of securities listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen: the Stock Exchanges react with a 1,9% jump from last week's lows. The yuan also recovered to 6,62 against the dollar from 6,64 on Friday evening.
XIAOMI, IPO RAISES 54 BILLION DOLLARS
Hong Kong also rises despite the contrasted start of exchanges on Xiaomi, the smartphone giant: at current values the IPO, the most important for Chinese tech since 2014, is valued at around 54 billion dollars, much less than 100 billion of dollars to which the company aspired.
KURODA CONFIRMS THE ULTRA-EXPANSIVE POLICY
Tokyo accelerates (+1,1%), despite the typhoons that are scourging the Rising Sun: the Daihatsu and Mazda plants are blocked. A few hours ago the governor of the BoJ, Kuroda, confirmed the lines of monetary policy: rates will remain in negative territory (-0,1%) for quite some time yet. The stock markets of South Korea (+0,7%) and India (+0,5%) rose less. The rupee appreciates against the dollar at 68,67.
Oil also rose: Brent at 77,42 dollars a barrel, against the weakening of the dollar.
WORLD DEBT AMOUNT TO 164 THOUSAND BILLION DOLLARS
Treasury bond yield is 2,84% this morning from 2,81% at Friday's close. World Bank CEO Kristalina Georgieva noted tonight in an interview with Bloomberg TV that the world is down to $164 trillion in debt, excluding households and individuals.
TRUMP CYCLONE ARRIVES IN EUROPE
Duties but not only. The international agenda will be dominated in this sector by the European trip of Donald Trump who will land in Brussels for the NATO meeting. Warlike tones are expected in the face of the lack of European investments (Germany in the lead) for defence. The US president will then continue to the United Kingdom.
Before leaving, Trump could announce the appointment of the new Supreme Court judge, undoubtedly a conservative who will shift the balance of the supreme body of American democracy to the right.
SPOTLIGHT ON DRAGONS. THE ITALIAN IMBALANCE ON TARGET 2 RISES
Today the eyes of the markets will be focused on the intervention of the president of the ECB, Mario Draghi, in the European Parliament. This is the banker's first public intervention after the Eurotower's decision to kick off the end of Qe.
Today's Financial Times notes that Italy's debt to the ECB has risen to around 500 billion. This is what can be deduced from an examination of the performance of Target 2, the system that regulates transactions in euro of significant amounts between European financial intermediaries, from which emerges the rapid growth in recent months of Italian liabilities (to 480 billion and the parallel up to a trillion increase in Franco-German assets).
CDP TOP MANAGEMENT, THE CHOICE TODAY
The Italian agenda is dominated by the expectation of the appointment of the top management of the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti today, announced by the undersecretary to the Prime Minister, Giancarlo Giorgetti. In pole position remain the former Intesa Sanpaolo Marcello Sala and the vice president of the EIB Dario Scannapieco. Fabrizio Palermo, current financial director, should instead be promoted to general manager. For the presidency (by statute the prerogative of the Foundations), the choice fell on Massimo Tononi, former president of MPS and Prysmian's number one, while for the position of president of the Minority Committee (which always falls to the Foundations) the name seems quite certain by Fabrizio Palenzona, former vice president.
TRIA AT ABI, BOT AND BTP AUCTIONS UNDERWAY
During the week, great curiosity for the first official visit tomorrow of the Minister of Economy Giovanni Tria to the ABI assembly which will also be attended by the governor Ignazio Visco. It is the first official contact between the top management of the banking system and the new executive.
The Mid-Month Bot Auction will be held on Wednesday. Thursday will be the turn of medium-long term securities. The DBRS sovereign debt rating update will be released on Friday.
THE RACE FOR BANCO BPM'S NPLs HAS BEEN STARTED
On the Piazza Affari front, great anticipation for the next tender to win Banco Bpm's NPLs and credit management platform. Six competitors should present themselves at the starting tapes of the race. The deadline for the submission of offers, initially scheduled for tomorrow, should be postponed to Wednesday.
THE CR7-JUVENTUS OPERATION CLOSE TO THE FINISH
Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow the deal of the year could close, that is the landing of Cristiano Ronaldo in Turin to wear the number 7 shirt in black and white. On Friday, the company, at the request of Consob, communicated that "during the purchasing campaign it evaluates various market opportunities and will provide adequate information if these are perfected". The capitalization of the club jumped last week to 626 million euros.
On the Wall Street front, it should be noted that the parade of US quarterly reports will begin on Friday. We start out with the accounts of the banks: Citigroup, JP Morgan and Wells Fargo.
