The European stock markets are down and suffer from the ongoing parliamentary paralysis on the raising of the debt ceiling in the United States. In addition, tension on the sovereign debt front is rising after Moody's review of Spain's rating. In Milan at midday the Ftse Mib index lost 0,75%, in Paris it fell by 0,83%, Frankfurt by 0,8%, London by 0,6% and Madrid by 0,36%. The Republican MPs close to the extreme right have once again said no to the plan to reduce the budget deficit drawn up by their group leader in the House. Thus the vote scheduled for yesterday evening was skipped and it was not possible to start negotiations with the democratic alignment which should lead to an agreement on the debt: Parliament has until 2 August to approve the increase. The speaker of the Republicans in the House, John Boehner has called a meeting of parliamentarians for the early afternoon during which there could be a showdown with the rebels. The euro weakened against the dollar for the third consecutive day and slipped to 1,426 from 1,433 last night. New historic low of the single currency against the Swiss franc: 1,144 from 1,147 yesterday evening. Moody's announced this morning that it has placed Spain's AA2 credit rating under review for a possible downgrade by one notch due to the country's continuing economic woes and rising borrowing costs. The yield on the Madrid government bond with a 10-year maturity rose by 10 basis points to 6,07%. The yield of the Italian 10-year BTP also rose: +9 basis points to 5,90%: the differential with the bund widened to 332 basis points, 20 points more than yesterday morning. Italy is also under pressure because there are fears of the resignation of Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti, attacked yesterday by Corriere della Sera for his links with his former assistant Marco Milanese. Tremonti has sent a letter to the newspapers in which he explains his relationship with Milanese and admits that he has made some mistakes, but nothing illegal. The Financial Times writes that Tremonti's position has weakened.
THE ITALIAN BANKS STILL SUFFER
BUT IT'S WORSE FOR AGRICOLE AND SPANISH
Italian banks are paying the bill for the increase in country risk: Unicredit -1,35%, Intesa Sanpaolo -0,93%, Banco Popolare -1,49%. The credit malaise applies to all of Europe. Banco de Santander and BBVA lose 2,8%. Moody's, in fact, has put the ratings of the main six Spanish banks under observation. Credit Agricole suffers in Paris after Kepler's target price cut. Yesterday evening, the French bank most exposed to Greece through its Emporiki branch estimated that the difficulties in Athens could have a negative impact of 850 million on the second quarter. In Piazza Affari Eni loses 0,8%. The oil company announced this morning that it closed the second quarter with adjusted profit of 1,43 billion euros, down 14% on the same period a year earlier: analysts surveyed by Reuters had expected 1,62 billion EUR. Tenaris bounces back after yesterday's plunge and climbs 0,2%. From the daily communications released by Consob we learn that on 27 July Norges Bank became one of the major shareholders of Prysmain, with a stake of 2,026%. The trickle of sales on Parmalat continues (-2,53%) , this time motivated by the quarterly report "below expectations" also marked by the downward revision of the guidance for 2011. The insurance companies are down: Generali -0,75% and Fonsai -0,39%
LOTTOMATICA SUPERSTAR PROMOTED BY EXANE INDESIT
ANTONELLA MERLONI GOES SHOPPING
Lottomatica is up 5,6%. The gaming company announced last night that it closed the second quarter with a profit of 46 million euros, up 32,5% on the same period of the previous year, and also raised its estimates on Ebitda and debt of 2011. This morning Exane raised the recommendation to outperform. From the press releases released by the Nis we learn that on 28 July the shareholder Antonella Merloni, through the Fineldo holding, purchased 40 thousand Indesit shares at a unit price of 5,364 euros. Antonella Merloni spent around 215 thousand euros. Mediaset loses 1%. The company announced last night that it closed the first half of 2011 with a net profit of 164 million euros, down from the 241 million euros of the first half of 2010. Analysts expected an average of 168 million euros. Mediaset also announced that it has reached an agreement which will lead to the aggregation of its assets in the transmission of the radio signal with those of Dmt, the share losing 6,2%.
