Stock exchanges, Europe weak with new US threats to Iran. Oil above $110

  (Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor)- The European stock exchanges opened the week in negative territory in the wake of Asia. The new threats by Donald Trump against Iran weighed heavily. The US president wrote on social media, addressing Tehran, 'Accept the deal or there will be nothing left'. Associated with this was a phone call between the tycoon and the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, who pointed out: 'If' America 'decides to resume hostilities with Iran, it is likely that Israel will be called upon to participate'. In addition, Trump has also summoned top security advisers to his golf club in Virginia to discuss the war. Per Axios, the Situation Room will be convened on Tuesday 19 May, while according to some media reports the US president has obtained a commitment from China not to supply weapons to Tehran. Thus, the FTSE MIB is also down due to the coupon strike. Same performance for the CAC 40 and the DAX 40 .

At the macro level, the focus is on Wednesday with the Federal Fed minutes from the April meeting, to see if there will be more details on the latest decision that saw four dissenters, and Nvidia's quarterly earnings report, because of the weight and influence it could exert on the entire technology and Ai sector.

Piazza Affari's 'dividend day', the day of the year when the largest number of companies detach their coupons, kicks off. In detail, there will be 22 companies in the main basket that will distribute annual or interim dividends for a total value close to EUR 16 billion. The technical impact on the index is estimatedat 1.5%, a factor that could influence the performance of the list in the early week session. Technology stocks, which rallied again last week, are still under scrutiny, while Nvidia's quarterly earnings report due on Wednesday is expected to be released. Oil stocks were also on the rise, with Eni and Saipem leading the gains.

Trump's new threats against Iran pushed up oil prices: the Brent is trading above $110 per barrel and the Wti is around $108. Complicating the picture is a drone attack that caused a fire at a nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates, while Saudi Arabia reported intercepting three drones. "The closure is rapidly draining global oil supplies," say analysts at Capital Economics, pointing out that "inventories could reach critical levels by the end of June, paving the way for Brent crude prices to be between $130 and $140 a barrel, if not more." If the Strait remains closed until the end of the year and oil stays around $150 per barrel until 2027, "inflation would rise close to 10% in the UK and Eurozone, driving rates back to their recent peaks and leading to a global recession," they warned. Also on the rise was gas, which was above €51 per megawatt hour in Amsterdam. On the currency, the euro/dollar exchange rate was in the 1.16 area; the euro/yen at 184.8 and the dollar/yen at 158.8.

Eurozone government bond yields lengthened again as rising oil prices pushed up inflation concerns. The yield on the benchmark 10-year BTp, maturing on 1 February 2036, rose to3.96% from 3.93% at Friday's close. The now close threshold of 4% has not been touched since the end of March. The general movement of eurozone bonds meant that the spread with the German Bund was actually little moved, rising to 78 points from 77 points on Friday. On Friday evening the S&P agency confirmed Italia's sovereign rating at BB+ while keeping the outlook at 'positive'. At the weekend, the focus was on public accounts with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni writing a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen requesting the extension of EU Stability Pact derogations to possible extraordinary measures to tackle the energy crisis.