Stock exchanges celebrate Powell, Piazza Affari the pink jersey in Europe. Wall Street closes higher: Dow Jones +1.14%, Nasdaq +1.47%.

(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - The Federal Reserve's turnaround on interest rates gives wings to  European stocks in the last session of the week. In his speech at the Jackson Hole symposium, US central bank president Jerome Powell said that the US central bank is ready to cut rates after more than four years. 'The time has come to adjust monetary policy,' Powell said, confirming investors' hopes. Stock markets thus celebrated the imminent loosening of monetary policy, with the FTSE MIB of Piazza Affari the Old Continent's pink jersey along with Madrid. Also up sharply was Wall Street.

"The time has come for monetary policy to adjust. The direction is clear, the timing and pace of rate cuts will depend on the data, the evolution of the outlook and the balance of risks'. Powell was clear in his speech in Jackson Hole, explaining that the central bank wants to act before further weakening in the labour market. "We do not want a further slowdown in the labour market," he said. Powell added that inflation 'has declined significantly', that it is now 'closer to our target' of 2 per cent and that there is 'more confidence' that it is heading towards the target. The next Fed meeting is scheduled for 17 and 18 September.

Milan and Madrid are also the queens of Europe throughout the week, all lived in anticipation of the Jackson Hole meeting. After the recoveries of the previous eighth, the strengthening of hopes for a rate cut in September - confirmed by Powell - encouraged purchases especially on the Ibex (+6.01%) and the Ftse Mib (+5.88%). The Dax in Frankfurt (+5.15%) and the Cac in Paris (+4.23%) also finished up well, while London's Ftse 100 (+1.95%) and Amsterdam's Aex (+2.85%) lagged behind. Turning to equities, in Piazza Affari the performance of Cucinelli (+4.8%) and Moncler (+4.4%) stood out, in line with European luxury. In fact, among the best stocks in the Old Continent in the eighth week were Lvmh and Hermes, both up 3.5%. The automotive sector also performed well on the Milan stock exchange: in line with the European sector (+6.7%), Stellantis and Iveco gained 4.2% and 3.9% respectively. Leonardo's stock (-1.8%), on the other hand, suffered, along with the defence sector, from the German government's decision to halt new military funding to Ukraine.

Friday in Milan's equities highlighted the banking sector with Banco Bpm, Intesa Sanpaolo and the Banca Popolare dell'Emilia Romagna. Attention on Stellantis, after the Minister for Enterprise and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, announced at the Rimini Meeting that the government will move the Pnrr funds earmarked for the Termoli gigafactory elsewhere if it does not receive an answer 'soon' from the company. Closely, the carmaker confirmed that Acc "is currently enhancing the project of the Termoli gigafactory, in addition to the one in Germany, in order to introduce new technology for the production of cells and modules, so as to be in line with the evolution of the market". Also doing well was Iveco Group, in the wake of the European automotive sector. Under the spotlight Eni, after the closing of the sale of its subsidiary Nigerian Agip Oil Company (Naoc) to Nigerian energy company Oando and the Indonesian authorities' approval of two development plans in the territory. Weak Brunello Cucinelli, while Moncler, which was downgraded by AlphaValue to "reduce" with a target price of EUR 58.10, recovered after a difficult start.

On the decline the spread between the BTp and Bund stood at 137 points from 140 points at the eve's close. Also declining was the yield of the benchmark ten-year BTp at 3.57 per cent, down from 3.61 per cent at the close of the previous day.