Stock market: European futures up slightly on the day of the ECB meeting
All eyes on Prysmian and St following their quarterly results
(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - European stock markets are set for a cautiously positive start, following the Federal Reserve’s decision to leave interest rates unchanged, as expected, within the 3.75–4 per cent range. Eurostoxx futures are up 0.16 per cent, whilst FTSE MIB futures are up 0.22 per cent. Today, the spotlight turns to the European Central Bank. Meanwhile, yesterday Wall Street closed just above par, partly driven by anticipation of the results from Alphabet and Microsoft. Google’s parent company, however, disappointed analysts, causing its share price to fall by as much as 10 per cent in after-hours trading. Nevertheless, revenue rose by 25 per cent compared with the previous year — the fastest growth rate since 2021 — reaching $127.58 billion. Net profit fell to $26.17 billion (equivalent to $2.12 per share) compared with $34.98 billion ($2.87 per share) the previous year. Google’s capital expenditure stood at $51.36 billion, below the $55.09 billion forecast by analysts. Alphabet has, however, maintained its full-year capital expenditure forecast at over $200 billion, with the aim of reaching $300 billion by 2027. Microsoft, meanwhile, rose in after-hours trading thanks to better-than-expected results, driven by 48 per cent growth in its Azure cloud infrastructure business. Microsoft’s revenue grew by 19 per cent year-on-year, reaching $92.28 billion compared with the consensus estimate of $90.69 billion, confirming Azure as its core business. Microsoft’s net profit rose to $36.63 billion, compared with $27.75 billion a year ago. In Asia, Samsung shares fell by more than 4 per cent following the publication of its financial results, despite these showing record results with an operating profit of 107.4 trillion KRW.
On the Milan Stock Exchange, all eyes will be on Prysmian, following the publication of its quarterly results and the upward revision of its guidance, and on STMicroelectronics, which is also set to release its financial results. Attention will also be focused on Siena, where the Banca MPS annual general meeting is due to take place.
On the foreign exchange market, the euro is trading at 1.1136 dollars (yesterday’s closing price was 1.1144 dollars) and 175.8 yen (176.34 yen), whilst the exchange rate between the US dollar and the Japanese yen stands at 157.85 (158.23). Gas prices in Amsterdam have fallen by 3.3 per cent to 97.4 euros. Oil prices are also falling: WTI is down 1.3 per cent at $101.42 per barrel and Brent is down 0.8 per cent at $114.28. Gas prices have fallen by more than 3 per cent to 97 euros.
emi-
