Stock exchanges, March freezes Europe amid war and record oil. Milan -6%

(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - The European stock exchanges closed March in a nightmarish mood, marked by the US-Iran war and the oil tanker stoppage in the Strait of Hormuz, which wiped out the record gains made by the stock markets in the first part of the year, with the Euro Stoxx 600 index closing its worst monthly performance (-8%) since June 2022. The indicator of Europe's 600 largest market cap companies had not closed in the red at the end of the month since June 2025, almost a year ago. This is the snapshot of the markets taken after the last session, which ends a period to forget for the financial markets of the Old Continent due to the conflicts in the Middle East and the soaring price of a barrel of oil, with Brent crude having long since crossed the psychological threshold of one hundred dollars.

Looking at the month of March alone, the losses affected all the major listings. In fact, the monthly balance was negative for Frankfurt (-10.5% the worst), Paris (-8.9%), Madrid (-7.1%), London (-6.7%) and Milan, which did slightly better but still with a passive 6.1%. At Piazza Affari, the monthly balance sheet of stocks saw Amplifon (-28.7%, under stress since it announced the acquisition of Gn Hearing), Inwit (-23.8% in view of the legal battle with the tlc over the cancellation of tower contracts) and UniCredit (-16%) among the worst performers. Shining on the other side were Eni (+26.4% on record crude oil), Lottomatica (+20.5%) and again among the oil companies Tenaris (+10.3%) with the sector rising at a high rate for the second month in a row.

The market thud thus nibbled away bit by bit at all the gains of the first two months of 2026. The first quarter's score is negative, but with strong distinctions. The black palm remains Frankfurt, which dropped 7.6% followed by Paris (-4.3%) and Madrid (-1.8%). Then there is Milan, which again with its -1.4% almost evens out the final tally, while London breaks away and rises 2.4% in the quarter. It should also be noted that Wall Street fared worse, as between January and March, the three main US indices recorded sharper declines than those on the Old Continent: S&P (-6.9%), Nasdaq (-9.6%) and Dow Jones (-5.7%), which if the session on the other side of the Atlantic is still in progress. Closing the list are the record oil price rises, with the Brent rising by +92.3% since the beginning of the year (+64.1% in March alone) and the Wti in the quarter +83.9% (in the last month +58.7 per cent).

The European markets broke ranks and, despite contradictory signals, believed in a breakthrough on the US-Iran conflict, recovering ground for the second session in a row, even though yet another oil flare-up took Brent to close to 120 dollars a barrel. The signs are twofold: the article in the Wsj that Donald Trump would be willing to end hostilities in the Middle East, even with the Strait of Hormuz partially closed, and the tycoon's subsequent warning message to European countries such as France and the UK: 'Iran has, in essence, been decimated. The hard part is done. Now go get your own oil'. Words that observers have interpreted, with all due caution, as a way of disengaging from the consequences of the conflict on energy prices. This just as Iran struck a Kuwaiti oil tanker in the waters off Dubai and Eurozone inflation rose by 2.5% per year in March, testifying to how much the commodities trend weighs on the Old Continent's price index. And not only that, as witnessed by the trend of fuel prices above $4 a gallon in the US (record high since August 2022), a topic that has always been sensitive for US citizens.

As a result, Milan led Europe at the close, up 1.1%, Paris +0.5%, Frankfurt +0.8%, Madrid +0.8%, Amsterdam bucked the trend at -0.5% and London +0.5%, while indices on Wall Street also continued to rise. Meanwhilein the US consumer confidence in March rose to 91.8 points from 91 in February, above expectations.