Stock exchanges celebrate the reopening of Hormuz, oil sinks in New York (-11.5%). Record week for Milan

(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - European stock markets filed into the final session of the week with momentum, galvanised by the announcement that the United States and Iran are negotiating a three-page plan to end the war. One of the items under discussion is for the US to release $20 billion of frozen Iranian funds in exchange for Iran giving up its stockpile of enriched uranium. Added to this is Tehran's decision to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to all commercial ships. 'Iran,' US President Donald Trump wrote on Truth, 'has agreed never again to close the Strait of Hormuz. It will no longer be used as a weapon against the world!" An announcement thatdropped the price of oil with the Brent in the 87 areadollars a barrel and the Wti at 81 dollars. So Milanends trading up 1.75% at 48,869 points, never so high since March 2000. Parisis up 1.97 percent and Frankfurtis up 2.25 percent.

In a session lacking in macro data, the recession alarm issued by the IMF and the uncertainty over the next central banks' moves remain in the background. Fed Governor Stephen Miran signalled on the eve of the meeting a possible downsizing of monetary easing expectations, bringing his forecast for the year down from four to three cuts. For the ECB, on the other hand, the head of the IMF's European department Alfred Kammer expects 'a cumulative increase of 50 basis points by the end of the year'.

Meanwhile, on Monday 20 April, eight companies in the Ftse Mib will detach coupons, with a calculated technical decline of 0.62% for the index. They are Banca Mediolanum (balance of €0.65 on €1.25 per share total), Banco Bpm (balance of €0.54 on €1 total), Campari (€0.1), Ferrari (€3.615), Iveco (€5.8216), Mediobanca (€0.63), Prysmian (€0.9) and Unicredit (balance of €1.7208 on €3.149 total).

Negotiations for an end to the conflict supported European stock markets for the entire week with Milan gaining 3.3%, outperformed only by Frankfurt (+3.7%). Paris closed the eighth quarter up 2.2%, held back by the luxury sector after the likes of Kering and Hermes posted below-expected accounts due to geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. At the stock level in Milan, banks shone with Mediobanca (+17%) and Mps (+15.5%), in the week of the shareholders' meeting where the Tortora family's list prevailed, bringing Luigi Lovaglio back to the helm of the Siena-based institution. Also doing well was St (+13.7%) in the wake of chip giant Tsmc and European tech (sub-index +7.8%). Purchases then went to Stellantis (+10.8%) buoyed on the one hand by good delivery data, and on the other by the AI agreement with Microsoft and new hints on war conversion arriving from the US. Cucinelli also rose 10.3%. On the opposite side of the spectrum, oil prices - Eni (-10.9%), Saipem (-7.5%) and Tenaris (-4.9%) paid the price for the drop in crude oil prices, with the Wti dropping 14.8% and Brent crude 7.9%.

Wall Street closed positive with the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and on the back of optimism about a close agreement between the US and Iran. The Dow Jones climbed 1.79 per cent to 49,447.8o points, the Nasdaq advanced 1.52 per cent to 24,468.48 points while the S&P 500 advanced 1.20 per cent to 7,126.03 points.