Stock exchanges, waiting session with eyes on Big tech and Fed. Milan down (-0.48%) with Fineco. Wall Street +0.59%.

(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - The European stock exchanges closed with a sluggish performance the first session of a week that will have in the meetings of the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England and in the quarterly reports of the big technology groups (Microsofot, Alphabet, Apple, Amazon and Meta) the most awaited and delicate passages. After taking the Stoxx600 to two-year highs in the last octave, the main stock indices closed just off parity while Milan and Madrid (IBEX 35) suffered the most from sectoral selling on banks, financial services and telecoms.

The FTSE MIB thus ends in negative territory. Badly affected first of all Finecobank, thanks to a report by JpMorgan that fears a rise in deposit costs in the final months of 2023, and Telecom Italia, for which traders' attention is focused on Kkr-Mef's bid for Sparkle and the board's slate for the spring board renewal. Weak also Poste Italianeafter the last positive sessions that accompanied the start by the Meloni government of the formal procedure to be able to proceed with the sale of part of the public stake in the group's capital. Highlighted instead were Iveco Group and oil stocks (Eni ), although crude oil weakened during the day.

Wall Street was flat at the start, with traders looking ahead to Big Tech's quarterly reports and the Federal Reserve meeting scheduled for tomorrow. The Dow Jones climbed 0.59 per cent to 38,332.93 points, the Nasdaq advanced 1.12 per cent to 15,628.05 points, and the S&P 500 advanced 0.76 per cent to 4,927.945 points.

Itre major indices are coming off theirthird consecutive week up, after encouraging economic data. Economic growth in the fourth quarter was much stronger than expected, with year-on-year core inflation lower than expected. Weekly rises were lower than the previous week, however, after some below-expected quarterly reports, such as those of Intel and Tesla. Today marks the start of the busiest week of this quarterly season, with 19% of the companies on the S&P 500 due to report data: the most anticipated quarterly reports are those of Microsoft and Alphabet, scheduled for Tuesday, and those of Apple, Meta Platforms and Amazon scheduled for Thursday, all after the markets close. On Tuesday, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) of the Federal Reserve will start its two-day meeting, from which no surprises are expected: analysts, surveyed by the Cme Group, assign almost a 98% chance to keeping interest rates at 5.25-5.50%; for the March meeting, the chances of a 25 basis point cut are at 48.6%, down almost 25 points from a month ago.

Asset management prices, the trading rooms explain, are discounting the ratings of investment banks. In particular, Azimut is retreating after analysts at Barclays lowered its rating from 'overweight' to 'equalweight', while raising its price target from €25.4 to €27.1 per share. As for Finecobank, JpMorgan lowered its target price from EUR 14.5 to EUR 13.4 per share, with a 'neutral' rating, unchanged from previous assessments. "Ahead of FY2023 results, which will be published on 6 February, we update our model, lowering our earnings per share estimates for 2024 and 2025 by 9 per cent and place Fineco under Negative Catalyst Watch," under observation for possible downside, JPMorgan analysts pointed out, explaining that they "remain constructive for the longer term, however, despite concerns about the near term, given the diversified business model and impressive operating leverage." Of particular concern is the expectation that 'Fineco will lower its guidance on net interest income for fiscal 2024, as it is explicitly based on forward curves that have declined substantially since the third quarter results'.