Volatile and devoid of sitting “a permanent center of gravity” today, to quote the great Franco Battiato: after various ups and downs, the end of the European lists is practically colorless, while overseas Wall Street proceeds in contrast.
Piazza Affari closes with a feeble increase of 0,07%, at 24.880 points, but it reached an intraday peak of over 25 thousand, which has not happened since February 2020. The banking sector remains effervescent, animated by speculative appetites in view of movements in the sector and after the news, released last night, that Fininvest has sold its share (about 2%) in Mediobanca (+0,9%). The operation, reads a note, is part of a logic of "rationalization and rebalancing of its financial investment portfolio". Basically, the holding company led by Marina Berlusconi probably wanted to raise cash (174 million euros) to buy Mediaset shares (+1,84%) sold by Bolloré.
The stake would now be in the hands of Unicredit (+0,9%), which would act in the role of broker in this transition. However, at the end of the race there could be Leonardo Del Vecchio, already the first shareholder of Piazzetta Cuccia with a 13,2% stake, or Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone, very active in this phase also on Generali (+0,2%) which today approved a quarterly in line with expectations. The situation is very fluid and in the sector Banco Bpm also stands out +0,7%, while outside the main basket Mps takes off (+6,64%), waiting for one or more spouses to get married with. There has been in recent days the opening of Bernardo Mattarella, CEO of Mediocredito Centrale, to participate in a possible acquisition process of part of the bank.
Also leading the Ftse Mib are Amplifon +2,68%, Moncler +1,54%, Ferrari +1,48%, Pirelli +1,15%. In the lower part of the price list, Prysmian -1,22%, Telecom -1,1%, Tenaris -1,06%, Hera -1,06%. Without verve Stellantis, -0,04%, which remains indifferent to the agreement with Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics giant and official supplier of Apple's iPhones, to give life to the Mobile Drive joint venture which, it seems, will provide innovative experiences to motorists.
On the other hand, the closure is positive for the secondary market, while the vaccination campaign is also working well in Italy, infections are slowing down and the country is preparing to restart. However, the euro area experienced a technical recession in the first quarter of 2021 (-0,6% GDP in the January-March period, -1,8% on an annual basis). The economy contracted in all the big countries of the bloc except France. For the president of the ECB Christine Lagarde, Europe - in the phase of the pandemic - has shown courage, a sense of cooperation and commitment in facing the challenges posed and now it remains of crucial importance not to withdraw support measures too soon. Germany's constitutional court has dismissed appeals over the central bank's pandemic purchases. In this context theo spread between ten-year Italian and German drops to 115 basis points (-2,28%) and the 1,05-year BTP rate improves slightly to +XNUMX%.
On the American front, meanwhile, Wall Street continues to be mixed, with the Dow Jones down by 0,2% and the Nasdaq up by 0,5%. While waiting for the veil to be lifted tomorrow on the minutes of the last Fed meeting, there is excitement in large-scale distribution and in particular on Walmart, which closed the first quarter down, but less than expected. The focus also remains on the media. After the agreement between WarnerMedia (of AT&T) and Discovery, for a streaming platform capable of competing with Netflix, Disney and NBCUniversal, today we are looking at Amazon, which is said to be negotiating the acquisition of the film and television company Mgm for about 9 billion dollars and to strengthen its offer on PrimeVideo.
In the Stars and Stripes bond market, the yield on Treasuries showed little change, as expectations that the US will not raise interest rates in the short term have strengthened. Dallas Fed Chairman Robert Kaplan reiterated yesterday that he does not expect an interest rate hike until next year, weakening expectations that inflationary pressures could prompt the central bank to act soon.
On the currency market the dollar goes back and the euro is trading higher at 1,22. The downward trend of bitcoin also continues, down by 4% to just over 43 thousand dollars (-35% in a month). “Bitcoin and ethereum are not cryptocurrencies but cryptoassets – observed Lagarde. speaking at the Generation euro Students' Awards 2021 – they are speculative, volatile, unstable and as many of my colleagues have said, those who invest in these assets must be ready to lose everything”.
The raw materials are at the window: spot gold trades lower by 0,36% to 1531,77 dollars an ounce; oil, like Brent, dropped 0,2%, 69,32 dollars a barrel.
