Duties, immigration, oil. As feared, the temperature on major geopolitical issues is heating up, to the detriment of the mood of the markets, once again in search of safe-haven assets. The confrontation on trade between China and the United States rises, even if Donald Trump has an exception: the United States will not tax iPhones built in the country of the Dragon. On the other hand, no concessions for the children of immigrants separated from their parents, as Melania Trump has asked in vain. Indeed, President Donald went wild with a tweet against Angela Merkel who was guilty of "violating German culture" with her policy of opening up to immigration.
The price lists reflect the winds of war that threaten the stability of the markets.
Donald Trump has put another 200 billion in tariffs to be paid by China in the pipeline in response to the measures taken by Beijing in the face of US tariffs announced last week. "If the United States has lost every crumb of rationality - was the immediate reply - we will not back down, but we will be able to respond in quantity and quality".
Asian stock exchanges retreat under pressure. The Chinese markets, closed yesterday for holidays, ended trading in deep red: the Shanghai Composite index collapsed by 3,99%, to 2907.82 points, to its lowest level in the last two years. Shenzhen is even worse, accumulating a loss of 5,77%, at 1.594,05. Hong Kong -2,7%. Tokyo closed down 1,7%.
Futures on Wall Street -0,7% and London -0,8% before opening also fell this morning.
The escalation of the last few hours is pushing investors towards safe-haven assets, gold rises by 0,4% to 1.283 dollars an ounce. The yen appreciates against the dollar to 109,8 from 110,7 yesterday. The yield on Australia's 2,61-year bond fell to a three-month low at 2,65%, from XNUMX% yesterday. Yield moves inversely to price.
Yesterday the US markets closed in negative territory. The Dow Jones index loses 0,21%, S&P .0,41%, the Nasdaq almost flat +0,01%.
The stocks most linked to exports to China suffer: Boeing -0,9%, the chips index falls by one percentage point.
Brent-type oil closed sharply higher yesterday, due to the latest rumors about the amount of production increase that OPEC will decide this weekend, it seems that Saudi Arabia and its allies are willing to increase only by half a million barrels per day, about a third of the initial project, unwelcome to Iran and Venezuela. North Sea crude traded at $74,8 a barrel this morning, down 0,7% from 2,6% yesterday. Even in the event of production cuts, Goldman Sachs expects prices to rise.
On Wall Street, the energy index, the best of the day, closed up 1,1% after five days of decline. Chevron +1,6%, Conoco Philips +1,9%.
In Piazza Affari, the recovery of hours rewarded above all Saras +3,4%. Eni +0,53% recovered from the lows of the opening to then close at 15,53 with a gain of half a point. Saipem +0,3%.
HOLDS MILAN, FRANKFURT UNDER SHOT
Weak closure for the European stock exchanges, penalized by fears of a trade war, awaiting signals on the oil front and indications coming from the European "Jackson hole", the meeting of big bankers at Sintra castle under the aegis of the ECB.
Milan recorded one of the best performances in Europe: the Ftse Mib lost 0,41%, but the detachment of the coupons of five heavyweights of the main basket weighed 0,2%: Stm, Poste, Terna, Snam and Exor.
DIESELGATE, AUDI CEO STOPPED
The worst place on the Old Continent was Frankfurt which was also affected by the news of the arrests of the CEO of Audi, Rupert Stadler, as well as the delicate political situation in the country on the subject of immigration. A two-week truce has been reached between the CDU and its Bavarian component CSU, which came to threaten a government crisis last week. Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, leader of the anti-Merkel rebels, wants to send immigrants back to the EU countries where they were registered.
Fractional losses for Paris -0,93% and Madrid- 0,83%, flat London -0,01%.
In April, the balance of the Italian trade balance recorded a surplus of 2,938 billion compared to a surplus of 3,603 billion in the same month of 2017.
THE SPREAD DROP TO 216. RACE FOR GREECE BONDS
Moderate recovery for the Italian secondary at the end of the session, which nonetheless gains ground on its Bund counterpart at the end of a session marked by increased volatility and thin trading volumes, in which caution prevails.
Starting from the XNUMX-year derivative, the covers consolidated in the afternoon thanks to the breaking of important technical levels on the charts.
The Italy/Germany yield spread on the February 2028 stretch closed at 216 basis points, not far from the lows, after a fluctuation band between 215,5 and 227,8 basis points.
The 2-year BTP is back below 0.5% yield for the first time since May 25, spread at 111.
Peripheral Europeans benefit from the recovery of the Greek paper on Germany, ahead of next Thursday's Eurogroup in Luxembourg.
Last week the ECB bought securities for 3,141 billion as part of the Quantitative Easing, against 8,223 in the previous eighth.
THE BANKS ARE KEEPING, BPM CLEANING UP BAD LOANS
Positive day for banks: the Italian sector index closed at +0,11%, against a slight drop in the European Stoxx.
Banco Bpm (-1%) announced on Friday evening that it had closed the securitization of 5,1 billion euros of non-performing loans. Also in the spotlight is the tender for the transfer of another 3,5 billion bad loans and the credit management platform by the institute. Also in the running is DoBank (+2,89%) which today will publish the plan to 2020 and a consortium made up of Christofferson Robb & Co, the spac of Corrado Passera Spaxs and Fire.
WELL THE BIG, THUD OF MPS
The Bigs are on positive ground: Unicredit +0,34% and Intesa +0,24%. CEO Carlo Messina confirmed the search for a partner in asset management. Blackrock has reduced its stake in the institute to 4,95%. The bank will have to pay around 41 million euros to liquidate the shareholders who have decided to exercise the right of withdrawal as part of the plan for the mandatory conversion of savings into ordinary shares.
On the other hand, Monte Paschi fell sharply – 5,03% which left a good part of last week's gains on the ground, on the wave of rumors of an (alleged) interest by Crédit Agricole.
PRYSMIAN PAYS THE WARNING ON NEXANS
In Piazza Affari Prysmian (-2%) paid for the earnings alarm launched by its French competitor Nexans, which fell by 18%. The Italian cable manufacturer has announced an order from Van Oord Offshore Wind for the construction of an 'inter-array' submarine cable system that will connect the turbines of the Borssele III and IV wind farms in the North Sea.
COUPON EFFECT ON POSTAL SERVICES AND UTILITIES
The payment of the coupons of some Big companies conditioned the session of Piazza Affari. In particular, Poste Italiane -4,1% is the worst among the blue chips, on the day of the detachment of the 0,42 euro dividend. Net of this transaction, the stock rose by 1,61% to 7,33 euro.
Similar situation for the other blue chips that have detached the coupon. Dividend day also for other blue chips. Snam 0,1293 euro, the balance for 2017. The share buyback plan started yesterday. The stock lost 0,3% net of the coupon (-4,27% gross). Stm -1,33% to 22,16 euros after a $0,06 quarterly dividend. Telecom Italia savings +0,6% coupon equal to 0,0275 euro (-2,84% gross). Terna +0,3% (-3,12% gross). Dividend equal to 0,145737 euro, at the balance for 2017.
Also paid is the Acea coupon +0.4% (0,63 euro coupon), Autogrill +1% (0,19 euro), Exor +0,2% (0,35 euro), Hera +0,7% ( 0,095 euros), Iren +0,5% (0,07 euros).
MEDIOLANUM PIR PUSH ISAGRO
Isagro, +5,1% to 1,65 euro. The company's board of directors was strengthened with the entry of minority shareholders who work for Mediolanum Gestione Fondi (belonging to the Mediolanum Banking Group.
Enav +0,8%. Barclays has raised its rating to Overweight, with a target price of 4,85 euros.
Reno de Medici splashes (+7,8%), to new highs since 2002 after a takeover in Spain.
The best stock was Mutui Online (+12%).
