Difficult start to the week for the Italian spread, which just a few minutes after the start of trading registers a surge of more than ten points. The yield differential between Italian and German 10-year government bonds has touched a peak at 348 basis points, after closing last week at 336. The new width of the range corresponds to interest rates on ten-year BTPs again dangerously close to the psychological threshold of 5% (4,97%).
In the same minutes they register heavy declines also on the stock markets, with Piazza Affari in the red by 1,2%. The losers are above all the banks, whose fate is as always linked to that of the government bonds in the portfolio: Intesa leaves the field 1,8%, Banco Popolare 1,7%, Unicredit 1,4% and Montepaschi 1,1%.
The statements arrived last Saturday by Silvio Berlusconi weigh on the performance of the differential and of the Italian stock exchange. After undergoing a sentenced to four years in the first instance in the Mediaset trial, the Cavaliere relaunched in terms of internal politics, stating that the PDL could take away confidence in the Monti government and force the country to early elections.
