Le bad news coming from Athens they also hurt the Italian public debt. In the early afternoon the BTP-Bund spread it flared up to reach a maximum of 440 points, to then fall back slightly to around 430. The new level of the differential between Italian and German government bonds corresponds to interest rates on our XNUMX-year bonds equal to 5,8%.
Once again, the tension on our country's bonds has increased due to the Greek political crisis. The latest meeting between the president of the republic Karolos Papoulias and the leaders of the three major parties (New Democracy, Syriza and Pasok) ended in yet another nothing done. Nine days before the elections, the verdict was a failure: no government coalition, no technical executive. “Unfortunately” – announced the socialist Evangelos Venizelos, number one of Pasok – we will have to go back to the polls. The leader of the Democratic Left, Fotis Kouvelis, confirmed that there will be no more negotiations. The Greeks will be called to vote again between 10 and 17 June.
The fear of the markets at this point it is that the government born from the next elections can refuse the agreements signed with the EU and the IMF. The country would thus avoid putting into practice the austerity measures imposed by Europe, but at the same time it would renounce international aid for 130 billion dollars. A chain of events that would probably push Athens out of the eurozone and therefore, inevitably, into default.
The Hellenic affair had an immediate effect also on the currency market, with a heavy fall of the euro to 1,2782 dollars. Abrupt and immediate acceleration of declines on share prices, with Milan in the afternoon accentuating the losses up to -2,20%, and then recovering one point in the following minutes.
Meanwhile also other major European markets managed to contain the losses, with Frankfurt traveling in the red by 0,8%, Paris by 0,5% and London by 0,4%. Bringing up the rear is naturally the Athens Stock Exchange, which has lost more than 5%. As for Wall Street, the Dow Jones index dropped 2,99 points, equal to -0,02%, at the start, the Standard & Poor's 500 dropped 0,32 points, -0,02%, while the Nasdaq rose by 4,93 points, +0,17%.
