Record high for Wall Street. Positive EU stock exchanges amid optimism on tariffs and quarterly reports. Prysmian soars (+5.5%)

(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - Positive closing for theEuropean stock exchanges, with investors continuing to hope that an agreement will soon be reached on the trade front between the US and Europe. In the meantime, the quarterly reporting season is going full steam ahead, bringing positive surprises. Pepsico, for example, surprised analysts with accounts that clearly exceeded expectations, to the point that the company's top management also revised upwards its year-end earnings estimates. In addition, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing boosted the technology sector, reporting a record second-quarter profit up 61% year-on-year. Investors also appreciated the data on US retail sales, the real engine of the star-studded economy: in June they rose by 0.6%. In Europe, June inflation rose to 2% in the final reading from 1.9% in May. Milan ended trading 0.92% ahead (the Ftse Mib above 40 thousand points) and the spread in the 88-point area. Frankfurt (+1.49%) and Paris (+1.29%) did better.

Wall Street by a record

Wall Street closed at record highs, with the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 at all-time highs. The Dow Jones rose 0.52% to 44,485.53 points, the Nasdaq advanced 0.74% to 20,884.27 points while the S&P 500 gained 0.54% to 6,297.50 points. The US stock market is also celebrating encouraging data, including new claims for unemployment benefits, which fell to the lowest since April, and retail sales, which grew by 0.6% in June, more than analysts' expectations (around +0.2%). Meanwhile, the quarterly earnings season continued: PepsiCo greeted its better-than-expected accounts with a 7% jump. Quarterly revenues rose 2.1% to $22.73 billion. In addition, company executives, while confirming 2025 revenue expectations, improved those for earnings per share, which are expected to decline 1.5 per cent instead of 3 per cent. Meanwhile, investors continue to digress over Trump's moves towards Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. Rumours about a possible dismissal of the banker have been circulating for days. The New York Times wrote that Trump had already prepared a letter of resignation for Powell to sign, but just yesterday the tycoon denied it: 'rumours about Powell being fired are false,' he said, 'I'm not going to do anything.

At Piazza Affari, the Prysmian (+5.48%), benefiting from the upward revision of its year-end forecasts released by French rival Legrand (+8.79%), which, counting on more robust demand driven by data centres and the Artificial Intelligence boom, expects sales growth of between 10 and 12%, after the 13.4% increase recorded in the first half of the year (or 9% at constant exchange rates and perimeter). Also up more than 2% were Stmicroelectronics on the back of positive results from Taiwanese chipmaker Tsmc. The Stellantis also recovered more than 2 per cent after slipping on the eve of the session following Renault's profit warning. However, the latter still lost half a percentage point in Paris. The focus was once again on banks. In particular onUnicredit on Banco Bpm , while investors are questioning whether a new stop to the ops on the Milanese bank led by Giuseppe Castagna by Consob is in the offing, after the ruling by the Lazio Regional Administrative Court and after the letter sent by Brussels to the Italian government, after preliminarily finding violations of regulations regarding the exercise of golden power. The president of Consob, Paolo Savona, said: "we are studying" and during the hearing before the Commission of Inquiry on banks he explained that Consob is assessing whether there is a possibility of a further extension in the Ops on Bpm after the 30-day one already granted in May. "At this time it would seem that the law does not leave us any more room," Mps (+0.23%) and Mediobanca (-0.08%) were also kept an eye on. The market exchange between the securities rose to 2.62, still higher than the 2.53 offered by the Sienese bank to take over the Piazzetta Cuccia institution. Meanwhile, on the eve of the takeover, the CEO, Luigi Lovaglio, continued to declare himself confident about the successful outcome of the takeover bid launched on Mediobanca and also stated that the institute's CEO would also be changed. But Mediobanca's advertisements are flashing on financial sites, urging shareholders not to join the Mps offer. In addition, today there was a back-and-forth of criticism between the Caltagirone group, which accused CEO Alberto Nagel of having said falsehoods about the takeover bid for Mediobanca, and the Piazzetta Cuccia institute, which sent the criticism back to the sender with the markets closed.

On the foreign exchange rate front, the euro was weak against the dollar, with the greenback supported by good macro data (retail sales above expectations and unemployment claims at their lowest since April) and Trump's denial about a possible dismissal of Powell. The European currency changed hands at $1.1588 (-0.4%) . Bitcoin settles at $118,607 (-0.6%). The oil went on the rise: Brent crude oil from the North Sea stands at 68.94 dollars a barrel (+0.6%), Wti at 67 dollars (+1%). Gold slowed: the futures fell 0.57% to $3,339.90 an ounce. Finally, gas fell 1.2% to €34.38 per megawatt hour..