LIVE MARKETS WAITING FOR THE FED. AND THE BTP/BUND SPREAD RETURNS TO 250
Fasten your seatbelts. Tonight, with the publication of the minutes of the Fed meeting at the end of July, the countdown officially kicks off for the first mini monetary tightening by the US central bank in three and a half years. The financial markets, in truth, have already reacted with great vehemence at all latitudes.
In summary: Tokyo is starting to close in balance (+0,03% one hour from the end of trading) despite the fall of Tokyo Electric Power -9% after the emergence of new problems at the Fukushima plant. Hong Kong and South Korea were also down, both down by 1%. Shanghai is also down.
Weak, after the collapse of Tuesday, the field of Emergenti. The Indian rupee loses momentum, the Bangkog stock market falls, only state purchases on the stock exchange prevent a new collapse in Jakarta. Paradoxically, only the squares closed due to the emergency caused by a seasonal hurricane survived the financial hurricane: Taiwan and Manila.
Wall Street is uncertain, already focused on the Fed's minutes. But, after four negative sessions, the plus sign is again thanks to the good results of a prestigious retail name such as Best Buy, up 9% in the wake of the good results and forecasts for the whole year. The Dow Jones closes -0,05%, the Standard & Poor's 500 climbs 0,38%, while the Nasdaq gains 0,68%.
Bad day also for all the European Stock Exchanges: London lost 0,1%, Paris -1,3%, Frankfurt -0,7%. In Europe, the greatest losses concern construction stocks (Stoxx of the sector -1,6%), banks (-1,6%) and insurance companies (-1,6%). Between banks Company Generate lost 2,8% in Paris, the Spanish Santander fell by 2,1%, in Frankfurt Deutsche Banks -1,6%, Switzerland ubs -1,9%.
As for insurance, the decline is led by the French Axa -3,8%. However, the lists of the South suffer the most: Madrid, the worst Stock Exchange, ended up down by 1,8%. Piazza Affari closed the second consecutive day lower, after a rally of no less than seven positive sessions in which it gained a total of 6%. The FtseMib index finished down 1,4%.
BTP, THE HOLIDAYS ARE OVER FOR AUCTIONS
While waiting for the Fed's decisions, the debt markets are already acknowledging the new situation: the 2,81-year US T-bonds are trading on a yield of 1,85%, unchanged compared to the day before. 5-year Bunds traded at XNUMX%, XNUMX bp less than at the start of the week.
"German rates are still too low," commented German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaueble, adding that there will be no further writedown of Greek debt, but a new aid program for the country, the third, will be needed.
On the government bond market, the session was characterized by a significant widening of the spread, which came close to 250 basis points, a level it had left on 12 August and then dropped to almost 230 basis points. However, Spain placed 6- and 12-month bonds for a total amount of 4,15 billion, with rates down on the previous placement.
At the beginning of next week, Italy will return to the primary. In fact, the month-end auction round will begin on Tuesday 27 August, with the placement of indexed securities and Ctz, the following day will be the turn of the very short-term sector, while the medium-long term auction will be held on Thursday 29, the single of August after the cancellation of that of mid-month.
FINMECCANICA –5% REMAINS GROUNDED IN KOREA
Target practice on banks, on fears of a wave of rate hikes: Unicredit -1,4% Understanding -0,6% Mediobanca -3,1% MontePaschi -4,3%. The black day of the financials also contemplates the tumble of the managed: Mediolanum -4,2% General Bank -4,8%.
In the insurance field Generali -1,4% Fondiaria-Leaves -3% Unipol -4,4%. In Piazza Affari the fall of Finmeccanica -5,2%, also affected by the rumors about the probable exclusion of the Eurofighter consortium (Finmeccanica participates with 21%) in the 5,4 billion euro tender to supply 60 fighter planes to Korea.
Among the industrialists, Fiat fell by 2,6%, Pirelli -1,5% Prysmian -1,7% StM -0,8%. Mediaset in the end it reduced the decrease to -1,8% and still remains the best Italian blue chip since the beginning of the year (+103%).
