Mib above 30,600; eyes on Fed decision

(Alliance News) - On Wednesday, major European stock markets open on the upside, except for the London Stock Exchange, while more macroeconomic data from the major Eurozone economies are coming in the morning and eyes are already on tonight's Fed decision.

Thus, the FTSE Mib is in the green by 0.1 percent at 30,644.47, the Mid-Cap is in the fractional red at 45,451.79, the Small-Cap is up 0.1 percent at 27,703.33, as is Italy Growth at 8,318.00.

In Europe, Paris' CAC 40 is in the green by 0.5 percent, London's FTSE 100 gives up 0.3 percent, and Frankfurt's DAX 40 gives up 0.2 percent.

"After the ECB held rates steady last week, today is the turn of the Federal Reserve, which may try to put a stop to the idea of a rate cut in March. This does not mean that the Fed will rule out the idea of a rate cut, but simply that March is too early for a data-dependent central bank," commented Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets.

"Since Powell's December press conference, in which he admitted that the committee discussed rate cuts only two weeks after dismissing the idea in early December, markets have decided that March is a live meeting. In December, the FOMC raised benchmarks for 2024 to 4.6 percent, the September level, while forecasting a decline in core PCE to 2.4 percent. The debate has now shifted to when the rate cuts will begin, with markets tossing around the idea that we could see the first cut in March."

On the Mib Saipem rebounds and rises 2.1 percent after giving up more than 12 percent Tuesday. The company confirmed an incident on the pipelaying vessel Castorone off Australian waters during normal pipelaying operations.

"The incident caused no injuries to personnel and there was some localized damage to the main line which will be remedied. The vessel Castorone was not seriously damaged. The health and safety of our personnel, the environment and our assets are a top priority for Saipem," reads the note released by the company.

On the podium and among the best on the list are banks: BPM rises 1.5 percent, BPER gains 1.2 percent, UniCredit picks up 1.1 percent. In contrast, FinecoBank sits on the bottom, which leaves 0.7% on the parterre.

Also hurting is ERG, which gives up 0.3% after announcing the finalization of the acquisition from QEnergy France SAS, a leading renewable energy operator in France, of 100% of CEPE Renouvellement Haut Cabardès SAS, a company that owns a 73.2 MW wind and solar portfolio in France.

The finalization of this transaction allows ERG to consolidate its position in France, its second largest market after Italy, reaching 674 MW of installed capacity in the country, about 20 percent of which is composed of solar.

Also going down are Moncler, down 0.6 percent, and Brunello Cucinelli, down 0.2 percent.

On the Mid-Cap, Salvatore Ferragamo gives up 0.9 percent. In recent days it reported preliminary results for 2023, with revenues coming in at EUR1.16 billion from EUR1.25 billion in the previous year and therefore down 7.6 percent.

Safilo Group, on the other hand, is up 5.2 percent after announcing preliminary net sales of EUR238.7 million in the last quarter of 2023 from EUR245.4 million in the same period of 2022, representing growth of 1.7 percent at constant exchange rates and a decline of 2.7 percent at current exchange rates, and 3.3 percent net of sales in the former GrandVision chains.

For the full year, preliminary net sales amounted to EUR1.02 billion down from EUR1.08 billion in 2022.

Maire Tecnimont - up 0.1 percent - on Tuesday announced that NextChem, through its subsidiary NextChem Tech, has signed a contract with Paul Wurth SA, an SMS group company, and Norsk e-Fuel AS for a licensing and engineering package related to NX CPO technology to be used in the first industrial-scale plant capable of producing SAF from green hydrogen and carbon dioxide in Mosjoen, Norway.

This will be the first plant developed by Norwegian Norsk e-Fuel AS, a project development company backed by a group of shareholders, including Paul Wurth.

On the Small-Cap, Elica - flat at EUR2.30 per share - announced Tuesday that it had signed a partnership with the Ducati racing team, ahead of the start of the 2024 MotoGP world championship.

Biesse - flat at EUR12.18 per share - on Monday announced that, as the conditions precedent stipulated in the acquisition agreement had been met, the acquisition of the entire share capital of GMM Finance Srl, the holding company at the head of the GMM Group to which GMM Spa, Bavelloni Spa and Techni Waterjet Ltd, as well as their respective Italian and foreign subsidiaries, active in the sectors of machine tools for processing stone, glass and other materials, belonged.

The provisional acquisition consideration of approximately EUR69 million was fully settled in cash starting from an enterprise value of EUR86.5 million and taking into account a Net Debt Financial Position.

Aeffe rises 1.2 percent the day after announcing that Adrian Appiolaza is Moschino's new creative director.

Among SMEs, Comal--green by 0.3%--reported Wednesday that it had signed a nearly EUR3.0 million contract for the turnkey EPC-M formula supply of a photovoltaic plant in southern Italy.

TraWell Co is not yet affected by trading. The company on Tuesday reported that it was awarded a contract to provide baggage protection services at the New Jorge Chavez International Airport in Lima, Peru for seven years.

Trawell Co. operates through its wholly owned subsidiary Safe Bag Latam Peru, the provision of its integrated traveler assistance services at the existing Lima International Terminal through December 2024.

Digital Value -- in the green by 0.2 percent -- reported Tuesday that preliminary consolidated revenues as of Dec. 31 were EUR849.5 million with an increase of EUR141.0 million over 2022.

In Asia, the Nikkei closed in the green 0.6 percent to 36,286.71, while the Hang Seng was in the red 1.4 percent to 15,485.07, and the Shanghai Composite gave up 1.5 percent to 2,788.55.

In New York on Tuesday, the Dow Jones closed in the green by 0.4 percent at 38,467.31, the S&P finished down 0.1 percent at 4,924.97, and the Nasdaq closed down 0.8 percent at 15,509.90.

Among currencies, the euro changed hands at USD1.0819 against USD1.0840 recorded in Tuesday's European equities close while the pound was worth USD1.2679 from USD1.2669 on Tuesday evening.

Brent crude is worth USD82.25 per barrel versus USD82.45 per barrel at Tuesday's close. Gold, meanwhile, trades at USD2,057.20 an ounce from USD2,032.51 an ounce on Tuesday evening.

On Wednesday's calendar at 0955 CET is expected Germany's unemployment rate and at 1000 CET comes Italy's monthly unemployment rate.

At 1200 CET it will be the turn of Italian industrial sales, while at 1300 CET the US mortgage market report will be released. At 1400 CET, on the other hand, the CPI from Germany will be released.

At 1630 CET, from the U.S., it will be the turn of the crude oil stocks figure, the EIA report and the Cushing inventory.

At 2000 CET, however, there will be the FOMC's interest rate decision.

Among companies, Convergence and NVP results are coming up.

By Claudia Cavaliere, Alliance News reporter

Comments and questions to [e-mail]

Copyright 2024 Alliance News IS Italian Service Ltd. All rights reserved.