Tokyo goes down. The Nikkei index limits the damage in the final phase with losses of less than a percentage point, but the major exporters, Toyota in the lead -2,4% signal nervousness about the yen's rebound. The turbulence also affected Wall Street: Dow Jones -0,76%, S&P – 1.02% and Nasdaq – 1,06%. In Europe only negative signs. London -0,94%, Paris -1,39%, Frankfurt -1,03%. The worst is Madrid -2,15%.
And Milan? He closes the session with a loss of 1,68%, the Ftse Mib index at 16286 after losing up to 2,4% during the day. Leading the descent, as usual, the banks are the sector most sensitive to market tensions. But also, bad news, one of the strongholds of exports. On the day when the "Chinese" Prada celebrates a brilliant start to the year (turnover +14%, profits +13,5%) fears about China's slowdown hit luxury stocks: Ferragamo loses 2,15%, Luxottica -2,66%, Tod's -1%.
In short, the stock markets seem to have entered the tunnel of the summer crisis in view of next week's Fed meeting. And the most dangerous signals come from the currency market and from bonds.
BOTS RETURN NEAR 1%
“The markets have a bit of volatility but that has nothing to do with the Italian situation and therefore I don't see any particular dangers”. Word of Economy Minister, Fabrizio Saccomanni, in response to the question whether, on the eve of summer, we should be afraid of the financial markets as happened in the last three years. Thus Saccomanni attempted to exorcise fears on the eve of the auction of 3 and 12-month Bots.
But there are signs of tension. In the early afternoon of yesterday, the spread on the Bund briefly went up to 290 basis points with a yield on the Italian 10-year bond at 4,48%, the highest since the beginning of April. The alarm then partially subsided (yield 4,345&, spread at 275bps) but on the auction front, the rise in yields appears inevitable.
On the gray market, the 12-month Treasury bill offered this morning for 7 billion was traded yesterday at a yield of 0,975% (at the levels of the end of March) against 0,703% at the mid-May auction. The most demanding test falls tomorrow with the offer of the three-year BTP, plus 1-1,5 billion of the 15-year 15 and 3 billion Ccteu. It is not excluded that the three-year period could approach 2,5%.
IT BOND FLYING, EMERGING BOND COLLAPSE
The tensions on the sovereign bond market do not only concern Italy, the weak link as usual given the fragility of public finances: the yield on the US 2,29-year Treasury rose yesterday to 2012%, the highest level since April 2,20 , before falling back to XNUMX%.
German Bunds also climbed as much as 1,66% (the highest in more than three months) before closing at 1,60%. But the turmoil on the currency markets doesn't end there. The currencies of emerging countries have entered the sights, already protagonists of a formidable rally The Brazilian real and the South African rand are at their lowest levels for four and a half years. The São Paulo Stock Exchange loses 2,6%.
Meanwhile, the rankings of world finance are changing. Taiwan and South Korea and are officially from Morgan Stanley's basket of emerging countries. In their place comes Greece, relegated from the area of advanced countries on the day Athens shuts down state television. At the origin of the great volatility of these days is the ups and downs of Japan bonds. But the Bank of Japan did not feel it necessary to adopt new measures to calm the bond market: according to Governor Kuroda, the recent turmoil does not yet represent a significant risk for the current economic recovery.
And to close a comment in line with the nervousness of the day: "There are at least 60 probabilities out of 100 of a global recession within 3-5 years". Word of Bill Gross, the manager of Pimco.
GENERALI PAYS CASH IN MEXICO, PARMALAT TOWARDS A HOT SHAREHOLDERS' MEETING
Another day of passion for banks. Banco Popolare (-2,9%), Mps (-1,6%), Bper (-2,7%%) and Bpm (-1,2%) went down. If Intesa Sanpaolo lost 2,87%, Unicredit recorded a drop of 1,2% and Ubi of 2,6%. Fonsai is slowing down (-2,8%), thanks to the fact that the president of the company, Fabio Cerchiai, threw water on the fire by not wanting to comment on the rumors of the last few sessions regarding a possible interest by the financier, Warren Buffett, in the assets that he will sale the Unipol group.
Generali -1,42% In the afternoon, Il Leone announced the sale of the Mexican minorities, realizing a net capital gain of approximately 500 million euros. The group – reads a note – has signed an agreement with Grupo Financiero Banorte to sell the 49% minority stakes in Seguros Banorte Generali and Pensiones Banorte Generali for a total gross value of 857,5 million dollars, equal to 649 million euros.. With the operation, the company's press release continues, the insurance group will reach over 2,2 billion euros deriving from transfer operations since August 2012: this amount corresponds to more than half of the expected 4 billion target by 2015.
Few blue chips in Piazza Affari escape the Bear. Parmalat is doing well (+0,5%), while anticipation is rising for the shareholders' meeting. The Autogrills (+1,68%) were also popular, with the market ready to bet on imminent announcements, after the assembly gave the green light to the split of the restaurant business from the duty free ones. Last week, the chairman Gilberto Benetton declared that if opportunities for aggregation arise, the Benetton family would be ready to let go and fall below 50% in the capital
Enel Green Power +0,18%. Mediobanca and Mediolanum unchanged. Among industrialists heavy losses for Finmeccanica -3,75%. Pirelli also fell -2,39%. Fiat defends itself -0,43% defends itself better than other industrialists. Among the utilities, a thud of Enel -2,9% downgraded by Credit Suisse on the eve of the launch of the bonds. Telecom Italia drops by 1,8%, heavy Mediaset -3,94%, punished by the outcome of the elections.
Outside the main basket, the RCS have lost almost 5% while investors wonder about the price at which the new securities will be issued for the 380 million capital increase which will start on Monday. The decision rests with the board which will meet tomorrow.
