Cautious Europe, last Piazza Affari -0.2%
European stock markets are closing with little movement at the end of a volatile week for stocks, while Wall Street remains close to all-time highs. Piazza Affari ends today’s session down 0.2% at 30,283 points, with purchases in Mps (+1.5%), Banca Mediolanum (+1.35%) and A2a (+1.05%) ) as well as Interpump (-2%) and Leonardo (-2.6). %) fell behind, the latter also being held back by Exane’s “Underperform” rating.
Here is our live commentary at the end:
On the macroeconomic agenda were US existing home sales data, which fell 1%, below estimates, and the University of Michigan consumer confidence index, which rose to 78.8 points, above expectations.
Previously, figures were published that were in line with expectations for Japanese inflation (+2.3% annualized, -2.5% monthly), German producer prices, which fell more than expected (-1.2% month-on-month, -8 .6% year-on-year) and the UK retail sales fell 3.2% in December, much worse than expected.
Next week the focus will be on the ECB meeting after recent comments from Davos officials dampened expectations of impending interest rate cuts. Also focus on the Bank of Japan meeting scheduled for Tuesday.
It is also worth following the macro data on the preliminary US GDP for the fourth quarter and the preliminary values of the PMI indices, as well as the season of American quarterly reports with the accounts of Intel, Netflix and Tesla. In Italy, STM will open the dance for the Ftse Mib on Thursday.
For bonds, the BTP Bund spread reduces to 153 basis points, with the yield on the ten-year Italian government bond falling to 3.86% and that of the Bund falling to 2.34%, while the ten-year government bond rises to 4.16%.
Among commodities, Brent oil remains unchanged in the $79 per barrel range, preparing to close the week at its highest level since the start of the year amid escalating geopolitical tensions in the key Middle East region.
In the Forex market, the Euro/Dollar exchange rate remained little changed at 1.088, while the Dollar/Yen exchange rate remained almost unchanged at 148.1.
