The two good news coming from the other side of the Atlantic not enough to warm up the European stock exchanges, least of all Piazza Affari with the FtseMib index which closed substantially unchanged, in positive territory of 0,13%, almost 24.000 points. Same fate also for London, Paris, Frankfurt, despite the expected white smoke between the US and China on duties is now official (even if the decisive day, to understand the details, is tomorrow) and despite the possible towing of the quarterly reports of US banks, who have slipped a number of exploits today. Above all, JP Morgan shone, which closed the best year ever recorded for a US bank in history, and Citi, with profits close to 5 billion dollars, up 15%. Flop instead for Wells Fargo, which halves profits and also collapses on Wall Street.
Returning to this side of the Atlantic, indeed in the Mediterranean, there is very little to report on the Italian stock market. The sitting is guarded, with a very light sprint in the finale supported by stocks such as Moncler +2%, Azimut +1,7%, Prysmian +1,4% and Nexi +1,3%. However, the performances are in no particular order, no sector is positive or negative. The worst stocks are Pirelli -3%, Banca Generali -2,1%, Tenaris and Leonardo -1,8%. The other banks were more or less in tune, apart from that of the Leone: Unicredit +0,8%, Intesa Sanpaolo +0,3%, half a percentage point more for Ubi Banca and Banco Bpm.
Declining spread: the yield differential between the Italian 150-year BTP and the German equivalent settles at 1.112785 basis points. The euro is reported at XNUMX dollars, while the pound continues to depreciate: the British currency it dropped below 1,3 against the dollar. Since the beginning of the year, His Majesty's currency has dropped 2%, after the Christmas rally, when in the wake of Boris Johnson's landslide victory, the pound had leapt, breaking through 1,3 on the US currency and catching up with 1,2 with the euro. The BoE looks ever closer to a rate cut.
Raw material: oil resumes its ascent. Today Brent is worth almost 65 dollars a barrel, from 64.2 at yesterday's close, while WTI is growing more modestly, consolidating above 58 dollars a barrel. Gold retreats slightly, but remains well above the threshold of 1.500 dollars an ounce, 1.543 to be precise. With these winds of war, it is once again confirmed as a coveted safe haven.
