Piazza Affari defends the psychological threshold of 22 points conquered yesterday, Monday 7 August, and takes part in the moderate rise that affected all European price lists in the afternoon, after a morning characterized instead by widespread profit-taking. In Milan on the Ftse Mib (+0,08% to 22.048,3 points) shine in particular Banca Generali +2,45% thanks to the good quarterly performance of recent days, but also Ferrari which reaches new highs as well as Ubi Banca, Mediaset and Ferragamo: among other things, the luxury brand appears to be recovering after the difficulties of the last few weeks.
Worth noting, outside the main basket, is the good performance of Banca Ifis, which earns almost 1% above 41 euro per share: the Venetian bank, which has recently risen to prominence for the operation of the sureties granted to Milan for the registrations of Bonucci and Biglia, has registered a stellar half-year to say the least, with profits up 166% thanks to the acquisition of Interbanca, which has already gone to break even after less than a year.
Always under pressure Telecom Italia, which loses more than 2% due to the events related to the French ownership, with Vivendi who denies having de facto control over the Italian TLC and resizes the relationship between the telephone company and Canal Plus, and for the uncertainties about the future of the network. Buzzi, Unipol and Saipem are also in negative territory, with losses slightly lower or slightly higher than one percentage point.
After a slightly lower start, the Wall Street indices also recovered, allowing the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 to reach new intraday highs. The 30 blue chip index is thus preparing to file tenth straight record and 36th year-to-date; for that benchmark it would be the second record in a row. All this happens on a day devoid of macroeconomic cues and in which waiting for Walt Disney's bills, arriving after closed markets. In the Italian afternoon, the Dow rose by 31 points, 0,14%, to 22.149. The S&P 500 rose 4 points, 0,17%, to 2.485. The Nasdaq advanced 14 points, 0,2%, to 6.397.
The other European markets do even better than Piazza Affari: Madrid is the best, Paris, London and Frankfurt are also doing well. The slow ascent of oil continues, with Brent firmly above 50 dollars a barrel and with the Wti approaching it. On the currency front, it is worth noting the weakening of the British pound, which loses about half a percentage point against the US dollar, falling below the exchange rate of 1,30 when the markets close their doors in the Old Continent. The euro also fell, below 1,18 dollars. The Btp Bund spread is perfectly stable: the differential between the Italian ten-year yield and the German one ended the financial day exactly as it had begun it, i.e. at 152,4 basis points, almost the lowest since December 2016 (last week it fell just below 152 points).
