MILANO – Markets strengthened in the session following the Christmas weekend, with trading volumes physiologically falling for the holiday period. The main indices of the Old Continent recovered to close positively. At the end of the day, Milano sits on the highs and rises by 0.8%. Well Cnh Industrial in view of the listing of Iveco: Borsa Italiana has admitted the shares of the truck company on Euronext Milan, the debut is scheduled for January 3 but official confirmation will arrive. Diasorin runs with the pharmaceutical sector for the spread of the virus which requires more and more tests. Closed today and tomorrow London for holidays, the others also end positive: Paris turns up by 0.76% e Frankfurt 0.52%.
The American price lists have been returning for a week which has been a small film in recent months. Starting with a very heavy Monday session, the eighth (reduced for the Christmas closing on Friday) ended with the S & P500 capable of setting the 68th record of the year 2021: never so many since 1995. The question that everyone is asking is whether the so-called Santa’s rally which often characterized the last part of the year will also be held this time, now that Omicron in particular is putting the flight sector back on the ground. For the moment, purchases continue: at the close of EU trade, Wall Street strengthened with the Dow Jones rising again by 0.6%, the S & P500 by 0.9% and the Nasdaq by 1.1%.
The issue of concern for Covid, of course, remains on the table: preliminary data from three studies showed that Omicron causes fewer hospitalizations, but spreads much faster than the delta. And the risks for the unvaccinated are the same. For this reason, governments continue to impose new measures to slow down its spread. On the positive side, there was the approval, in the United States, of the first two oral treatments (by Pfizer and Merck) for high-risk people that tested positive.
The indices have been mixed in Asia where investors have begun to weigh the latest news on the Omicron front which is counterbalanced by the Chinese central bank’s maximum commitment to support real economy growth and reiterated the goal of having a healthy real estate sector. This morning, the Tokyo Stock Exchange closed down 0.37% with registered cases growing. Among the stocks in sharp decline is Softbank after the news on Friday that the Swiss bank Credit Suisse has launched a legal action in the US against the group over a question of funds claimed by wealthy customers of the bank against Katerra, a US company of the construction industry founded by Softbank’s Vision fund.
Among the few macroeconomic data of this period, the retail sales in Japan they grew by 1.9% on a monthly basis, an acceleration compared to the previous month (+ 0.9%). This is the strongest increase since last May according to data released by meti, the ministry of economy, trade and industry. On a seasonally adjusted basis, sales grew by 1.2 percent in November.
After an initial decline linked to the difficulties in the aviation sector, forced to cancel thousands of flights due to anti-Covid restrictions, the Petroleum raise your head: at the close of the European markets, the WTI gained 2.7% at 75.8 dollars a barrel, Brent rose 3.4% to 78.7 dollars. New drop for natural gas on the square in Amsterdam with ships arriving from the US to European ports to deliver LNG. liquefied natural gas to be regasified and fed into the network. Methane drops 12.24% to 96.95 euros per MWh, falling below the levels of last December 6, before the surge that took it above 180 euros per MWh on December 21st.
Closing of the day in sharp rise for the spread between BTP and Bund: the differential moves to 140 basis points area between closing trades, from 133 points at the end of Thursday 23 December with a 10-year Italian yield that jumps to 1.13% from 1.05% last week. The tensions on the markets due to the spread of the Omicron variant also made themselves felt on European fixed income. Finally, as regards the foreign exchange market, theeuro closed stable at 1.1320 dollars. The single European currency, on the other hand, is gaining ground against the yen above 130. The greenback also advances against its Japanese counterpart in the 114.90 area.
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