(Alliance News) - Major European exchanges closed in the red on Thursday after a bearish U.S. opening. The optimism of the beginning of the year is beginning to encounter some turbulence, with the DAX and FTSE 100 both slipping to one-week lows, as commented by Michael Hewson, Chief Market Analyst at CMC Markets UK.

The FTSE Mib, therefore, closes 1.8 percent in the red at 25,596.28.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 ends down 1.1 percent, Paris' CAC 40 gave up 0.8 percent, and Frankfurt's DAX 40 is 1.6 percent in the red.

"Stocks are down again as fears of prolonged periods of high interest rates have sidelined recent optimism about falling inflation. However, today's improved U.S. data help alleviate some of the fears that we could be facing a sharp economic collapse this month," says Joshua Mahony, senior market analyst at online trading platform IG.

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits, in fact, fell by 15,000 from the previous week to 190,000 in the week ended Jan. 14, the lowest figure in four months and well below expectations of 214,000.

The result further solidified the evidence of a stable labor market despite the Federal Reserve's aggressive tightening path of the past year, defying bets that the Fed will stop its tightening path before reaching the expected terminal rate of 5.25 percent.

"Improving economic data from the U.S. helped highlight a relatively resilient economy. The typical relationship between economic growth and unemployment seems to be set aside on this occasion, with the U.S. economy entering this period in an environment where employers had been struggling to fill their roles," the expert added.

On the central banking front, ECB President Christine Lagarde said euro area inflation remains "too high" despite the recent easing of price pressures and four interest rate hikes in the past year.

BoE Governor Andrew Bailey, on the other hand, told BusinessLive Wales that the U.K. bank rate is expected to peak at 4.5 percent, up from the current level of 3.5 percent but an improvement on the above 6.0 percent forecast made last fall following the publication of Kwasi Kwarteng and Liz Truss' mini-budget.

Among Italy's smaller lists, the Mid-Cap gave up 1.5 percent to 42,247.09, the Small-Cap closed down 0.8 percent to 29,443.60, and Italy Growth finished 0.7 percent in the red to 9,516.91.

On the main list in Piazza Affari, almost all of which was tinged with red, only Leonardo and Iveco Group were saved, closing up 1.9 percent and 1.6 percent. UniCredit ends just above par.

Leonardo and the General Secretariat of Defense and National Armaments Directorate announced Thursday that they have signed a contract to exercise options for additional AW169M LUH helicopters destined for Austria, the Italian company announced.

The acquisition contract provides for an additional 18 AW169M LUH - Light Uitlity Helicopters - destined for the Austrian Ministry of Defense, worth EUR304 million.

Oil is hurting: Tenaris is on the bottom with minus 4.9 percent, Saipem gives up 3.3 percent and Eni 1.4 percent. Regarding the latter, Credit Suisse announced Thursday that it had initiated coverage with an 'outperform' recommendation and a target price of EUR20, adding the stock to the Swiss bank's large-cap European integrated energy universe.

Snam gives up 2.2 percent. The board of directors announced Thursday that it had approved the Strategic Plan to 2026, which calls for total investments of EUR10 billion, a 23 percent increase from the previous one for the period 2021-2025 for which they amounted to EUR8 billion.

Of this, EUR9 billion is earmarked for gas infrastructure.

Azimut Holding -- down 1.7 percent -- said Wednesday that based on preliminary results and initial forecasts, it expects to close the 2022 financial year with a net profit of between EUR395 million and EUR405 million, in line with the target provided to the market of at least EUR400 million under normal market conditions, despite the difficult environment throughout the year.

Total net inflows for 2022 amount to EUR8.5 billion, exceeding the upper limit of the guidance set at the beginning of the year of EUR6-8 billion.

On the mid-cap, Juventus closes 3.6 percent in the red. Yesterday, shareholders appointed new members to the company's board of directors: Fioranna Vittoria Negri, Maurizio Scanavino, Gianluca Ferrero, Diego Pistone, and Laura Cappiello joined the board.

At the top is GVS, which finishes up 7.0%, followed by the only stocks in the green: Saras, up 1.7%, Italmobiliare and Brunello Cucinelli up 1.2% and 0.6%, respectively.

Webuild in closing gave up 0.6 percent. The company announced Thursday that it is close to finalizing an agreement with Clough's Deloitte Administrators in Australia to extend the scope of the acquisition to additional projects, safeguarding the company's business continuity, the delivery of quality works to clients, and above all safeguarding the unique skills and know-how of its staff.

Fincantieri closes in the red by 0.8 percent after announcing Wednesday that, through its U.S. subsidiary Fincantieri Marine Group, it has signed a contract with CREST Wind, a joint venture between Crowley and ESVAGT, for the design and construction of a service operation vessel.

On the Small-Cap, Newlat Food closed 1.3 percent in the red. It reported Thursday that preliminary consolidated revenues for 2022 are EUR730 million, up 17 percent organic year-on-year from EUR625 million reported at the end of fiscal year 2021 and up 128 percent from fiscal year 2019 when revenues were EUR320 million, the year it was listed on the Italian stock exchange's STAR segment.

I Grandi Viaggi is trailing and ends down 6.2 percent. On Wednesday, the board approved the draft financial statements as of Oct. 31, 2022 and reviewed the group's consolidated results between Nov. 1, 2021 and Oct. 31, 2022, reporting a net loss of EUR140,000 from a net loss of EUR1.4 million as of Oct. 31, 2021.

At the top, however, is Autostrade Merididionali, picking up 10 percent, followed by Piovan up 3.4 percent and Pininfarina, up 2.7 percent.

Among SMEs, Neurosoft closes in the green by 30 percent. Alfonsino also did well, ending up 29 percent. On Tuesday, the company reported revenues of EUR4.6 million in 2022, up 17 percent from EUR3.9 million a year earlier. Over the past year, however, the stock has given up 66 percent.

Doxee - up 2.5 percent - announced that it has concluded an investment agreement with Simest aimed at supporting the internationalization of the company and its Austrian subsidiary Doxee CEE Gmbh.

Medica closed in the green by 0.2 percent after announcing that Fabio Grandi will assume the role of global commercial director, effective March 2023, strengthening the current commercial structure.

In New York, at the height of trading, the Dow is down 0.9 percent at 33,007.94, the Nasdaq is down 1.3 percent at 10,817.51, and the S&P 500 gives up 1.0 percent to 3,888.25.

Among currencies, the euro changes hands at USD1.0801 versus USD1.0817 at Wednesday's close. In contrast, the pound is worth USD1.2359 from USD1.2362 last night.

Among commodities, Brent crude is worth USD85.90 a barrel from USD87.14 a barrel last night. Gold, meanwhile, trades at USD1,921.63 an ounce from USD1,913.85 an ounce last session.

On Friday's economic calendar, from Japan at 0030 CET the general consumer price index is expected.

At 0101 CET, in the United Kingdom, the GfK consumer confidence index will come out while retail sales are expected at 0800 CET.

At the same time, the German producer price index will come out in Germany while at 1000 CET Buba President Joachim Nagel will speak and at 1100 CET it will be the turn of ECB President Christine Lagarde.

From Canada at 1430 CET will come out retail sales while from the US will come data on existing home sales.

Among the companies in the stock market, BB Biotech, Casasold and SIT will release their last year's accounts on Friday.

By Chiara Bruschi, Alliance News reporter

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