Wall Street hits record high of 40,000 points but closes just below (-0.10%). Europe weak, Milan resists with banks

(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - The new records of Wall Street do not affect the European stock exchanges and so, while overseas the Dow Jones index touches for the first time the "symbolic" threshold of 40 thousand points (to close then negative, Dow Jones -0.10% at 39.869.38 points, the Nasdaq -0.26% to 16,698.32 points, while the S&P 500 dropped 0.21% to 5,297.10 points), the Old Continent's stock markets closed on a weak note as they awaited the EU inflation figure on 17 May.

At the end of the day, however, Milan's FTSE MIB supported by banks remained positive. Still in the spotlight was the price development: import prices in the US rose more than expected by 0.9 per cent in April, the biggest increase in two years. The figure did not, however, dampen investors' and economists' confidence in a 0.5 per cent cut in the cost of money by the Fed this year, including two cuts. Encouraging signals also arrived on the ECB front. At a press conference in Lisbon, the governor of Portugal's central bank Centeno said that the drop in inflation towards 2% 'is real and we are confident that the interest rate of monetary policy will come down'. Apart from Piazza Affari, the other Old Continent indices, from Frankfurt (DAX 30) to Paris (CAC 40), via London (FT-SE 100) and Madrid (IBEX 35).

Wall Street continued to rally, with the DJ touching 40,000 points for the first time since the record close on 15 May, a sign of traders' optimism about the interest rate cut and also thanks to the enthusiasm generated by recent developments and the prospects for artificial intelligence. Credit again goes to the weak monthly increase in April of consumer prices, which on an annual basis slowed from 3.5% to 3.4%, in line with estimates. Today, however, import prices posted their biggest increase in two years, a sign that progress is still needed on inflation.

Piazza Affari was buoyed throughout the session by purchases on banks, with Banca Pop Er and Banca Mps topped the FTSE MIB, where they were rewarded by speculation on possible M&A and analysts' ratings on the strength of the entire sector. The 'golden palm' goes instead to Leonardo - Finmeccanica, while the gain of Snam after its first-quarter results, which closed with a 11.3 per cent rise in profit to €335 million. Well-bought Ferrari along with the rest of the luxury goods. Slipping instead was the Eni group, which paid duty after the Treasury has perfected the disposal of 2.8% of the share capital through an "accelerated book building" that allowed the MEF to place the securities at 14.855 euro for a total countervalue of approximately 1.4 billion euro. As a result of the transaction, the stake held by the ministry in the oil company will drop from 4.8% to around 2% of the share capital. Sales also on Erg, Recordati and Stellantis which lost ground in the wake of the European auto sector.

In the US, meanwhile, the number of workers claiming unemployment benefits for the first time in the first week of May fell by 10,000 to 222,000, according to the Labour Department; expectations were for a figure of 221,000. Also in May, conditions in the manufacturing sector in the Philadelphia area deteriorated, but still remained buoyant. The index calculated by the Philadelphia Federal Reserve fell from 15.5 to 4.5 points, against expectations for a slowdown to 8 points. This was while data on building sites and building permits in the US in April fell short of analysts' expectations: the index measuring the start of new construction rose 5.7 percent from the previous month to an annualised rate of 1.360 million units (but economists had expected an increase to 1.421 million).