Stock market: Europe looks buoyant midway through the session; in Milan (+0.6 per cent), Pininfarina soars
Wall Street futures are up; Brent crude down to $103
(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - Falling crude oil prices and slightly lower bond yields (10-year Treasury at 4.98 per cent) are driving European stock markets mid-session. Thus, whilst Wall Street futures are up significantly (the Nasdaq up over +1 per cent), Milan leads the way at +0.64 per cent, Paris at +0.3 per cent and Frankfurt at +0.4 per cent. London is also gaining ground at +0.5%, shortly after the BoE confirmed that rates would remain unchanged at 3.75%, whilst markets are expecting a rate rise from the BoJ tomorrow. On the eve of the Fed’s 25-basis-point rate rise – widely anticipated and unanimously supported – the majority of officials predicted at least one further rise by the end of the year, but none in 2027.
“Inflation is too high and has been for too long,” commented its chairman, Kevin Warsh. A ‘hostile board’ that ‘raises rates for political reasons’, according to US President Donald Trump, but which Goldman Sachs analysts do not consider to be strictly ‘hawkish’. “The Fed has signalled that, at this stage, it does not foresee an aggressive cycle of rate rises,” they comment, forecasting as their base-case scenario “a further rate rise in December”, although “subject to the forthcoming inflation data and trends in energy prices”. Meanwhile, Brent crude is down 2.2 per cent at $103.5 per barrel; WTI is down 1.6 per cent at $100.8, partly due to better-than-expected weekly US inventory figures.
Buying interest in luxury stocks is returning to the Milan Stock Exchange, with Cucinelli (+1.9 per cent) and, above all, Moncler (+3.4 per cent), which is benefiting from a rating upgrade by Bernstein. Stellantis is rebounding (+2.2%) following the previous day’s sell-off, whilst Poste (+2.3%) and Tim (+1.9%) are gaining momentum compared with earlier in the session, just a few days ahead of the resumption of the takeover bid on Monday 21 September. Attention also remains on the banking sector, following IVASS’s early approval for Intesa (+0.5%) in its takeover bid for MPS (+0.8%), particularly regarding its indirect holdings in Generali (+0.1%) and the joint ventures between Monte dei Paschi and AXA. Attention is also on Generali, which is preparing its merger with Allianz (meanwhile, an IVASS inspection into Generali’s asset management operations has begun). Outside the main index, Pininfarina soars (+17.6 per cent), aligning with the price of the takeover bid launched by India’s Mahindra for delisting.
In the currency markets, the euro rose slightly to 1.1477 dollars (from 1.1463 the previous day).
