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(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor)– European stock markets are mixed in the wake of declines in Asia and Wall Street; the performance of the giants of the technology sector weighed on the latter with Nvidia and Tesla falling due to persistent investor fears linked to high valuations and high levels of debt. Investors’ eyes are on the Fed minutes which will be published in the evening relating to the last meeting of the institute led by Jerome Powellinteresting to see if there will be additional insights on future moves regarding interest rates. The bet is that the American central bank will continue its accommodative policy also in 2026. Data on employed weekly Adpwhile on Wednesday it will be the turn of unemployment benefits. Thus the FTSE MIB of Milan is traveling in slightly positive territory; further back the CAC 40 and the DAX 30. IBEX 35 down after Spain in December consumer prices recorded an increase of 2.9% on an annual basis. On a monthly basis, however, a change of 0.3% was recorded. In the same month, underlying inflation showed an annual variation of 2.6% and 0.4% on a quarterly basis.
In the background the geopolitical issues with the setback sui peace negotiations in Ukraine and the statements of US President Donald Trump on a possible another major attack against Iran
In Milan the Defense rebounds, the banks take off
Defense-related stocks continue to be in the spotlight on Piazza Affari. Geopolitical uncertainty pushes Leonardo – Finmeccanica and Fincantieri after the previous drops. Focus also on Azimut after extending the binding exclusivity agreement with Fsi Sgr relating to The Next Bank project, a digital bank for wealth consultancy. The banking sector is well set up with Banca Mps, Unicredit and Banca Pop Sondr leading the increases.
Outside the main basket, all eyes are on Webuild after having been awarded a contract in a consortium for a total of approximately 660 million euros as part of the works for the construction of the new Line 10 of the Naples metro. Finally Mondadori following the agreement to acquire 58.84% of Edilportale.com for 31.2 million euros.
Precious metals stable, oil down
After the strong oscillations of the day before, gold and silver return towards one stabilization. The yellow metal (after falling by more than 4% overnight) gains around 0.9% to 4,370 dollars an ounce, while silver (after the record of the day before at 84 dollars and the collapse of around 9%) it is moving up $74 an ounce. On the currency, the euro/dollar is little changed at 1.1768, as are the euro/yen (at 183) and the dollar/yen (156). It should be noted that for the first time in two and a half years, it yuan cinese onshore has consolidated beyond the psychologically important threshold of 7 dollars for dollar, driven by overall US dollar weakness and increased demand for the Chinese currency. Declining petrolium with Brent below 62 dollars a barrel and the WTI standing at 58 dollars. President Donald Trump’s threat to launch another attack on Iran if the country tries to rebuild its ballistic missile program or resume its nuclear program has an impact. “If that were the case, we will have to intervene to stop them,” he declared. “We will stop them. We will destroy them completely,” he urged, inviting Tehran to find an agreement with the United States.
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