Stock market: the Anthropic effect fails to take hold in Europe; Milan and Paris down 0.4 per cent
All eyes on the Israeli election; oil prices rise cautiously
(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - The Anthropic effect is waning on the European stock markets, which opened lower on the second trading day of the week. In Milan, the FTSE MIB (-0.3 per cent) is attempting to hold on to the 49,000-point mark, whilst Paris is down 0.4 per cent on the day of the vote on the budget bill. Frankfurt and Madrid are also weak (-0.15 per cent). By contrast, the Tokyo Stock Exchange is performing well (the Nikkei up 1.73%), as does South Korea’s Kospi (), which followed Wall Street’s rebound on the back of renewed optimism for the artificial intelligence sector following the US giant behind Claude’s application to list on the Nasdaq. The company led by Dario Amoderi is preparing for what could be one of the largest IPOs on the US stock market, with a target of $100 billion and a valuation of between $1,500 and $2,000. The Brazilian stock market is also worth watching following yesterday’s sharp fall triggered by Lula’s victory in the presidential elections. Today, however, all eyes are on the parliamentary elections in Israel, which are seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and will shape the next geopolitical moves. The price of oil is rising slightly, whilst new diplomatic efforts in the Middle East are fuelling hopes of containing a further escalation of the conflict between Washington and Tehran. In France, meanwhile, a vote on the budget bill is expected amid a general stalemate in bond yields. All this comes on the eve of the Federal Reserve’s decision, with most market participants expecting interest rates to remain unchanged following the previous rise in September. This, alongside the quarterly results from Alphabet and Microsoft (tomorrow), followed on Thursday by Amazon and Intel, will provide further clues as to whether the technology sector can recover from its recent weakness.
On the Milan Stock Exchange, Stellantis (-1.3 per cent) and Mediobanca (-1.3 per cent) are bringing up the rear, whilst Snam (+0.7 per cent), Iveco (+0.7 per cent) and St (+0.6 per cent) are vying for the top spots. Banks are down, whilst the government is finalising the 2027 Budget Bill, which could introduce an increase in the tax burden on the sector. All eyes are also on the risk game: Banco BPM (-0.15%) may decide not to attend the MPS (-0.75%) shareholders’ meeting called to vote on the dual takeover bid launched by CEO Lovaglio. Meanwhile, Unipol (-0.3%) has completed the capital increase required for the acquisition of the Siena branches, should the Intesa (-0.7%) deal go ahead.
On the energy front, the December Brent futures contract is trading above $116 per barrel (+0.25 per cent), whilst the WTI futures contract for the same month is trading at around $102 (+0.3 per cent). Gas prices in Amsterdam are also continuing to rise, standing at 96.7 euros per megawatt-hour. In the currency markets, the euro/dollar exchange rate is down slightly at 1.1161 (from 1.1181 at yesterday’s close), whilst the euro/yen is little changed at 176.17 and the dollar has risen to 157.85 (from 157.5).
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