Jensen Huang, creator and first shareholder of Nvidia, yesterday surpassed Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon, placing third in the ranking of the richest men in the world. But what strikes the imagination is another Nvidia record: Lisa, Sus, Huang's distant cousin at the head of Advanced Micro Devices, another leading company for chips dedicated toartificial intelligence, which crossed the $1,2 billion threshold after doubling in value in the last six months. It's hard not to think, he writes Alessandro Fugnoli, that the next big stock bubble it won't be on this topic. generative artificial intelligence, the one that "if it accelerates towards strong Artificial Intelligence or even towards superintelligence, it will have not only a historical but an anthropological impact". But this desire to dream needs two technical preconditions to translate into a large bubble. The first is liquidity and the second is a favorable macroeconomic environment. In short, trust but not too much.
Germany beats Tokyo's GDP
Having said that, this morning at the reopening after the holidays Taiwan Stock Exchange achieves a rise of 3%, new all-time highs. The heavyweight of the Taipei list, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing is up by 9%, in the wake of the record of the Philadelphia Semiconductor index: +2%.
The surprise of the day comes from Tokyo: The index Nikkei is up 1,2% but the Japanese economy has unexpectedly slipped into the recession giving Germany third place in terms of GDP growth.
The unexpected decline pushes the end of the negative interest rate policy in the country. Gross domestic product contracted at an annualized pace of 0,4% in the final three months of last year, following a 3,3% decline in the previous quarter, the Cabinet Office said. The report showed that both households and businesses cut consumption for the third consecutive quarter.
Hong Kong +0,4%, the Golden Dragon index of Chinese companies rises by more than +3%. They stay closed China's financial markets Shanghai e Shenzhen. Kospi of Seoul little moved. Jakarta Composite Index +1,6%: according to some independent counts, the elections for President of the Republic were won by the former Defense Minister, Prabowo Subianto.
Wall Street cancels inflation, the magnificent seven run
Moving on to Western stock markets, the opening is positive.
The substantial rebound on Wall Street has already almost completely repaired the bearish gap that followed the inflation data. The market quickly became convinced that in the end, month by month, the Fed will be right. Yesterday Dow Jones + 0,4% S & P500 + 1% Nasdaq Composite + 1,3% Nasdaq xnumx + 1,2% Fang Plus + 2%.
The progression of earnings quickly suggests that investors still favor technology and in particular the Magnificent Seven: Meta + 2,9% Tesla + 2,5% Nvidia + 2,5% Amazon + 1,4%.
Nvidia it came within less than one percentage point of its historical record. With a market value of $1.825 billion, it has come to surpass A, stopped at 1.820 billion, for the first time in history.
The Russell index also takes off
However, we must also point out the excellent +2,44% of theRussell 2000 index, which brings together the main stars and stripes mid/small caps. Again beyond the discriminating threshold of 2 thousand points.
Sul Ftse Eb (+0,94%, 31.624) snaps Prysmian (4,34%) after the completion of contracts for three orders with an aggregate value of approximately 5 billion euros with Amprion. He also runs Stellantis +3,96% after i count above expectations.
The markets have further scaled back their bets on rate cuts of May and June, after having eliminated the chances of a cut in March. While the Fed has signaled that it will eventually cut interest rates this year, it has offered little clue about the timing and especially the extent of the cuts.
Positive session for all US government bonds, after the sell-off of the previous day. 4,23-year Treasury yield at 4,33% from 2,33%. German 2,39-year Bund 3,85% from 3,93%. Ten-year BTP XNUMX% from XNUMX%. The spread it is at 150, in the area of two-year lows.
Today Lagarde speaks to the EU Parliament
The President's introductory statement will be held this morning Christine Lagarde before the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee of the European Parliament. The downward trend in eurozone inflation is on track, but any rate cuts will depend on incoming data. ECB chief economist Philip Lane said this. “We are going in the right direction, but I think we need to make further progress and get a little closer to our goal,” Lane said in an interview with Spanish national broadcaster TVE.
Price of Petroleum the decline to 81,30 dollars. Price down 0,3% from -1,4%. Last week, oil inventories in the United States increased much more than expected: +12,018 million barrels against expectations of only 2,8 million. Gasoline stocks instead decreased by 3,658 million barrels against expectations of -1 million. Distillate inventories, which include heating fuel, contracted by 1,915 million barrels versus estimates of -2,2 million.
Stellantis launches buyback, Luxottica profits rise
Tim (-0,33%) after the 2023 results, with a fourth quarter without major surprises. The positive trend is confirmed in 2023: theebitda after lease increased by 6,1% to 5,3 billion (slightly above consensus) and revenues by 3,1% to 16,3 billion (in line with expectations). In the fourth quarter the domestic market returned to growth for the first time in 22 quarters.
Leonardo. CEO Roberto Cingolani, when asked about a possible interest in Iveco's defense unit, simply said that the two companies have recently been in contact but that any decision will be made with "money and technology" in mind. The group, he said, is open to possible acquisitions, carried out in parallel with larger joint ventures with European operators.
Stellantis reported a 10% year-on-year decline in adjusted operating profit in the second half of last year, and announced a market buyback plan for 2024 worth €3 billion. The proposed dividend on the 2023 results is equal to 1,55 euros per ordinary share, with an increase of approximately 16% compared to the previous year. The group's CFO Natalie Knight said in a call that the difficulties during 2024 will be significant but less than in 2023.
Yesterday the Minister of Business and Made in Italy Urso said that if Stellantis does not increase production, the resources of the automotive fund will be allocated from next year to support new settlements, specifying that for months the government has been working at an international level to support the establishment of a second automotive manufacturer in Italy.
Lancia presented the new Ypsilon, the first of three electric models envisaged in the multi-year relaunch plan which will see the Stellantis group's premium brand return to sales outside the Italian market.
Unicredit is in exclusive negotiations with Prelios for the creation of a strategic partnership for the management of impaired loans and a final decision is expected between the end of March and the end of April, writes Il Sole 24 Ore.
Bpm bank (-0,63%). Fondazione Crt has decided to sell its 1,8% stake, according to Mf.
Italgas. CEO Paolo Gallo declared that he could invest in Greece more than the 900 million expected by 2029 and ruled out the listing of the subsidiary Enaon in Athens, according to some newspapers.
In Paris Essilor Luxottica closed the quarter with revenues up 7,1% at a constant exchange rate to 6,25 billion euros, driven by China and Brazil, while the EMEA region maintained a good performance. 2023 adjusted operating profit increased 7,7% compared to last year to 4,2 billion euros, despite higher inflation and currency impacts. The costs to support new initiatives, such as lenses for the management of myopia and smart glasses, also affected the group's profitability.
