On a day rattled by the latest earthquake in American trade policy, Piazza Affari gained momentum throughout the morning, thanks to a sharp rise by Enel and a positive tone in the banking sector.

As in other European markets, the financial sector—particularly significant for the Italian index—is considered more domestic and therefore less exposed, compared to industry, to the uncertainty fueled by the Supreme Court's Friday rejection of tariffs introduced by Donald Trump.

In general, brokers note, the U.S. president's response to introduce broad-based tariffs, initially at 10% and then raised to 15%, to replace those invalidated by the courts, benefits emerging markets such as China and Brazil while penalizing the EU. However, these are temporary measures that require Congressional approval within 150 days—an outcome that is far from guaranteed. At this point, all agreements made with the United States' trading partners based on the previous tariffs appear to be in jeopardy.

Thus, amid mixed European indices, around 12:30 p.m., the Ftse Mib stood out with a gain of 0.85% and trading volumes in line with the norm, at around €1.2 billion.

Meanwhile, U.S. futures point to a weak opening for Wall Street.

Among the standout stocks:

** ENEL, one of Italy's largest-cap companies, rose 5.6% after announcing a new industrial plan to 2028 with targets above market expectations, prompting analysts to revise their estimates upwards.

** As mentioned, banks are among the few sectors showing strength across Europe. The Milanese index is up 0.8%, with BPER and BANCO BPM rising by more than 1%.

** Conversely, the tech sector (STM -1%) and the industrial sector (BREMBO -1%, STELLANTIS -0.7%) are both down across the continent.

** A major exporter such as CAMPARI also fell by 1%, while the luxury sector advanced (MONCLER +1.5%, FERRAGAMO +2%).

Analysts are struggling to assess the potential impact of the latest tariff developments on various companies, as there remains significant uncertainty about the details and duration of the new measures: "The main message is that uncertainty over U.S. trade policy is increasing, making the macroeconomic outlook more complex and volatile," Equita commented in its daily report. "We also believe that, in the run-up to the November midterm elections, it will be politically difficult to adopt measures that would fuel inflation," the report adds, ruling out significant impacts on Fed rate cut prospects and highlighting the risk of further dollar weakening, with a rotation in favor of non-U.S. assets.

** LEONARDO fell for entirely different reasons (-1.8%), affected by weakness in the European defense sector following Reuters reports of a softening in Iran's nuclear stance.

(Claudia Cristoferi, editing by Stefano Bernabei)