The ghost of default is haunting Europe. By now Italy, despite the Btp/Bund spread widening again to 535 bp and the Btp yield exceeding 7%, is just one of the problems on the Old Continent's agenda. In the morning, the Spanish Bonos auction had, in fact, a mediocre outcome: 3,563 billion euros of 3-year bonds were placed, in the middle of the offer range between 4 and 1,5 billion euros with a bid-to-cover of 6,975 but the average yield rose to 1997%, the highest since 500. The spread with the Bund is close to 200 bp, at "Italian" rates. The contagion had an immediate echo in Paris, the last, indispensable frontier for the defense of the single currency. Just this morning the psychological trench of the 201,9 bp spread with bunds did not hold up: the gap widened to 2,8 after the Oat auction (five-year July maturity set at 1,7%, bid/cover XNUMX times ). The rigid line adopted by Angela Merkel does not help: . “neither Eurobonds nor large debt reductions lead to a rapid reduction of problems”. The chancellor reiterated the German no to making the ECB the lender of last resort.
This series of alarming data, following the financial landslide on Wall Street, after the alarm raised by Fitch, could not fail to have a major impact on the share price lists: Piazza Affari loses 1,27% (FTSE/Mib index at 15.222 ), Paris -1,35% , Frankfurt –0,88%. Milan awaits the shock of Mario Monti's keynote address in the Senate hemicycle. But the attention of international operators is now directed to other hotbeds of crisis.
On the stock market, the stocks that fell the most were banks, with the European Stoxx index for the sector down by 1,1%. The French banks lose out the most: Société Générale falls by 3,09%, BnpParibas -3,28%. Crédit Agricole fell by 3,64%. In Milano Intesa drops by 1,88%, almost unchanged Unicredit -0,98%, MontePaschi -1,1%, Ubi -1,82%, Popolare Emilia -2%. Sharp drop for Fondiaria Sai -5,21%, Generali -0,32% . Banca Popolare di Milano -0,27% is in line with 0,30 euro, the same value of newly issued securities.
Utilities are down, especially A2A (-2,2%), which suffers from the downgrade decided by Exane. Enel -0,5%, Telecom Italia loses 2,39%. Wti oil continues to rise and has exceeded 103 dollars a barrel (+0,5%): Tenaris falls by 1,6%, Saipem by 1,23%. Eni -0,82%, Enel -1,07%. Among the industrials the most marked decrease is that of StM -2%. Fiat down 0,20%, Fiat Industrial down 1,18% Tod's down 2,79%. Safilo's rise continues +3,1%.
