Stock exchanges, Wall Street worsens after Fed's status quo: -1.64%. Milan -0.3%

(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) -European stock exchanges in the red, still hostage to the price of oil which has risen again (Wti to 98 dollars a barrel and the Brent to 108 dollars) after the news, spread by the official Iranian media, of an attack on some oil and gas plants in the country and the contextual evacuation warnings for several energy plants in the Gulf. Thus, hopes for a short duration of the conflict in Iran are fading (with Tehran announcing the start of a 'full-scale economic war' after the attacks on energy sites). On the US front, the Federal Reserve's interest rates remain unchanged, despite Donald Trump's return to attacking Fed number one Jerome Powell precisely over the delay in reducing the cost of money. "A rate hike in the presence of a supply shock would not be appropriate. If prolonged, an oil shock acts more as a drag on growth than as an inflation driver. In an already fragile labour market environment, this could indeed justify more accommodative monetary policies," explains Jeffrey Cleveland, chief economist at Payden & Rygel. Thus the Ftse Mib closed down 0.33%, Paris 0.06% and Frankfurt 0.86%. Madrid a white fly at +0.2%.

A similar script is expected tomorrow for the ECB which is expected to leave interest rates unchanged. In this regard, it should be noted that February inflation in the eurozone is confirmed at 1.9% compared to the same month a year ago. The month-on-month change is +0.6%. Core inflation, according to Eurostat, rose by 0.8% month-on-month and 2.4% year-on-year.

Wall Street closed lower. The Dow Jones lost 1.64 per cent to 46,224.62 points, the Nasdaq fell 1.46 per cent to 22,152.42 points, and the S&P 500 dropped 1.36 per cent to 6,624.71 points. Losses widened after the Fed's announcement that it would keep interest rates unchanged between 3.5 per cent and 3.75 per cent with the prospect of only one cut in 2026. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell praised the 'solid' economic growth at a press conference. "We believe the current pace of monetary policy is appropriate," he said. The impacts of the Middle East war on the US economy are "uncertain," he added, specifying that consumer spending and business investment are healthy, although the housing market is showing signs of weakness.

On the stock, Nvidia Corp still in focus. Reuters reported, citing inside sources, that the chipmaker has obtainedChinese government approval for the sale of its H200 chips in China. The company is also reportedly preparing to make a version of its Groq artificial intelligence chip available in China. And still on the stock market, Macy's stock rose more than five per cent on the back of better-than-expected fourth quarter results.

On the Milanese stock market luxury drove, with Moncler (+0.9%) and Brunello Cucinelli (+4.1%), the latter also supported by the positive opinion of analysts who see the brand's momentum continuing. Financials also performed well, starting with Banco Bpm (+2.1%), Bper Banca (+1.3%) and Finecobank (+1.5%). Weaker Unicredit (-0.4%), which nevertheless remains in the spotlight due to the Dossier Commerzbank (+1.5%), while analysts at Autonomous Research have raised their target price to €90.