The week opened on a positive note at Piazza Affari, led in particular by UniCredit's surge, which carries significant weight in the index, following its 2025 results and 2026 guidance that exceeded expectations.

In Tokyo, the Japanese stock exchange reached new all-time highs after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's electoral victory.

On the U.S. macroeconomic front, the week will first bring the employment report scheduled for Wednesday—originally expected last week but postponed due to a brief government shutdown—which will be crucial for assessing the strength of the U.S. labor market after recent signs of weakness. Finally, insights on price trends will arrive Friday with the January CPI figures, which were also postponed.

Around 9:35 a.m., the FTSE MIB was up 1.05%. Milan is the best-performing market in Europe today, compared to a Stoxx 50 index rise of 0.6%.

UNICREDIT is the star of the board, jumping 4.6% to new highs not seen since November 2009. The bank aims to bring its profits to around 11 billion euros in 2026 after reaching 10.6 billion in 2025 (+13.6% year-on-year), a result above expectations and supported by stakes acquired in other institutions as part of the expansion plan led by CEO Andrea Orcel. According to JPM, the 2026 forecast exceeds the market's earlier expectation of 10.6 billion euros in profit, "with higher net revenues and improved costs."

The banking sector index is up 2.4%. MPS rises 1.6%, while BPER is also strong, up 1.3% to new all-time highs at 12.88 euros.

STELLANTIS has so far failed to rebound, remaining flat after Friday's 25% plunge following the announcement of about 22.2 billion euros in charges as part of a plan to scale back its ambitions for electric vehicles. Broker Jefferies cut its target price to 10 euros from 13 euros. Equita wrote in its daily note that "the worst in terms of news is behind us, but free cash flow remains the most important element to monitor closely."

On the other hand, STM jumped about 5% after expanding its strategic partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS), announcing a multi-billion-dollar, multi-year commercial agreement to enable a new high-performance computing infrastructure for cloud and AI datacenters.

There was movement in the defense sector, with LEONARDO and FINCANTIERI both rising over 2.5%.

Also performing well was TIM (+1.7%), which climbed back above 60 euro cents, hitting new highs since August 2018 at 61 cents.

(Giancarlo Navach, editing Sabina Suzzi)