The terrorism factor has once again broken into the political debate and also into financial news: the symbolic value of the target, the British Parliament, counts, as does the moment chosen by the attackers, less than a week before Brexit. But the dramatic news will not affect the US debate on Obamacare, where Donald Trump's first serious political defeat is looming. The perception on the eve is that Trump does not currently have the votes to pass his health care reform, not even in the House. The dictatorial attitude of the president who warned that "those who don't vote lose their job" does not seem to pay off.
Beyond the political value, the outcome of the vote is important because Trump has repeatedly said that the new legislation on taxes and growth stimuli will come after canceling the reform signed by Obama. In this framework, the problems of the Eurozone are, for once, in the background. But the disorderly outing of Jeroem Dijssembloem, who managed the negotiations with Athens on behalf of Germany in recent years, shows that the champions of austerity are in retreat: there is no need to regret them.
A SCANDAL FOR ABE: TOKYO IN FLEXION
Asian stock markets rise cautiously this morning: the drop in the dollar favors the rise in the stock markets of the Asia Pacific area and China. Weak Tokyo, held back by a political scandal involving Shinzo Abe and his wife: a traditionalist school association has bought, thanks to the good offices of the prime minister, land at a steep discount to build an elementary school.
APPLE KEEPS WALL STREET Afloat, THUD FOR NIKE
Wall Street struggles to get back up after Tuesday's knockout, the worst session of the Trum era: the Dow Jones index falls by 0,03%. Instead, the S&P 500 (+0,19%) and the Nasdaq (+0,48%) rose.
"If the health care reform does not pass Congressional examination or is postponed, there will be serious doubts about the credibility of Trump's plans, starting with the rise in shares and rates". So yesterday Jeff Gundlach of Double Capital, one of the largest operators in the money market. “If that were the case – he concluded – it would be better to sell US shares for the benefit of bonds and emerging markets”.
Supporting the three indices was Apple (+1,13% to 141,42 dollars), while the first reports are arriving that attribute a target of 160 dollars to Apple. The capitalization is close to 734 billion. The most negative note comes from Nike (-7,05%), which has not achieved its budget objectives for the quarter.
OIL, SHORT FALL BELOW $50
Oil still down: Brent briefly fell below the psychological threshold of $50 for the first time since November 2016. In the evening, it traded at $50,3 a barrel, down 1,1%. Eni finished down 0,2%, Saipem -1,1%. Gold climbs back to 1.249 dollars an ounce, +0,5% on the sixth consecutive day of increases.
MILAN COMES UP IN THE FINAL. NO EU TO THE FRANKFURT–LONDON MERGER
The Milan Stock Exchange closed on positive ground, hooking up to Wall Street's recovery in the final stages. The Ftse Mib index recorded a rise of 0,17%, to 19.953 points. Same variation for Madrid. The other price lists fell: Paris -0,15%, Frankfurt -0,48%. The worst place was London (-0,84%), which was affected by the effect of the attack on Westminster.
The European Commission, anticipates Reuters, intends to soon veto the merger between the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Boerse. The 'no' from the Antitrust authority will be announced within a few days, according to one of the sources on Wednesday of next week on 29 March.
EUROGROUP, DJISSEMBLOEM APOLOGIZE HALF
The president of the Eurogroup, the Dutch Jeroem Dijssembloem, has found a way to speed up his exit from EU leadership, which was in any case a foregone conclusion after the defeat of the socialists in the national elections. In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the president of the Eurogroup said that the countries of Mediterranean Europe that receive flows of funds from the Union spend them on "women and alcohol". On his Facebook profile, Matteo Renzi defined Dijsselbloem's statements as "bar sports" adding that "the sooner he resigns, the better, for him but also for the credibility of the European institutions".
For the Portuguese premier, Antonio Costa, Dijsselbloem's statements are "racist, xenophobic and sexist. Europe will be credible as a common project only on the day when Mr. Dijsselbloem stops being head of the Eurogroup", he concluded. "If anyone was offended by my statement, I'm sorry, but I have no intention of resigning," replied the Dutch politician.
TODAY THE LAST TLTRO AUCTION, REQUESTS TOWARDS 125 BILLION
There was once again great vivacity on the bond market. The 0,40-year Bund yields 2,25%, the BTP 2,30% (206% on Tuesday). The spread rises to XNUMX points.
Eurozone banks will today have their last chance to obtain four-year loans at convenient conditions from the European Central Bank, according to the scheme envisaged by the ECB. Potentially, according to estimates by UniCredit strategist Luca Cazzulani, there are around 125-130 billion funds.
On the primary market, Germany this morning placed 2,52 billion euros of its 0,41-year Bund with a yield up to 0,25%, from the previous XNUMX%.
BANKS RAISE THEIR HEADS IN THE FINAL
In the Italian list, the insurance companies are down: Generali -1,5%, UnipolSai -0,7%, positive Unipol (+0,5%).
In Piazza Affari, the bankers held up well, helping to make the Milanese stock market recover ground in the afternoon. The entire European sector recovered from its lows, the Eurostoxx Banks index lost 0,3%, at the worst time it lost 2,5%.
Worth noting is the positive conclusion of Unicredit (+1,2%) which eliminated about three points of loss, closing slightly up at 14,34 euros. It marked the lows of the session at 13,83 euros. Intesa ends the day unchanged: Banco Bpm -1,1%, Bper Banca +0,3%.
Pop. Vicenza and Veneto Banca have decided to extend the deadline for accepting the settlement offer initially set for today to 13,30 pm on 28 March. The postponement of the deadline was decided given "the growing number of agreements signed in recent days and the high flow of shareholders who are presenting themselves in the branches" of the two banks to sign the settlement agreement. At 13,30 pm yesterday, the shareholders of Pop Vicenza who had adhered to the operation are 64,04% of the shares in the perimeter and those of Veneto Banca 62%. The objective indicated initially by the banks was to reach an 80% membership rate, but they could accept a lower rate.
TELECOM IN THE SPOTLIGHT: VIVENDI SILURA RECCHI?
In the spotlight Telecom Italia (+0,6%). On the eve of the Board of Directors' meeting, Credit Suisse raised the target price to 1 euro from 0,9 euro. Neutral judgment confirmed. The market awaits news on governance. Bloomberg wrote that Vivendi is maneuvering to change the balance of power distribution at the top of the company. The first shareholder intends to strengthen the managing director Flavio Cattaneo and downsize the figure of the executive chairman, a seat now occupied by Giuseppe Recchi.
The timing of the judicial duel between Vivendi and Mediaset has slipped (-1,3%): the claims for damages for defamation presented by Vivendi and Mediaset will be included in the civil lawsuit brought by Mediaset and Fininvest against the French group for the failure to comply with the contract on Premium . The new hearing, preceded by an attempt at mediation, will be held on October 24th.
Mondadori -0,9% at a loss: Icbpi lowered the buy recommendation to neutral with the target price remaining at 1,8 euros. Analysts cut their rating in light of the stock's rally
REWARDED BY LEONARDO, SOGEFI IN THE RALLY
Fiat-Chrysler -0,5%. The Paris prosecutor's office has officially opened an investigation into the FCA group in relation to alleged manipulations of diesel engine emissions. Cnh Industrial -0,5%, Brembo +0,3%.
Leonardo +1,6%. Alessandro Profumo, recently appointed by the Treasury as managing director, was indicted by the Court of Potenza for bank usury, an accusation relating to his work as chairman of MontePaschi.
Sogefi +3,9%. Mediobanca Securities confirmed the stock's outperform recommendation and target price of 3,3 euros after the group announced the launch of a project to build a new factory in Morocco, the company's first industrial site in Africa.
Ternienergia increases by 4,9%. The signing of large contracts for the construction of photovoltaic plants in Africa and Iran could be announced within the next few weeks. Overall, this would be more than 1 gigawatt of installed power.
