(Alliance News) - On Friday, major European stock markets confirm expectations and open in positive territory -- with the exception of Frankfurt -- as they look ahead to flash data on the consumer price index for the Eurozone expected mid-morning.

Thus, the FTSE Mib is in green by 0.1 percent at 24,863.08, the Mid-Cap is down by 0.1 percent at 40,589.71, the Small-Cap is in fractional green at 28,322.14, while Italy Growth is in fractional red at 9,388.00.

In Europe, Paris' CAC 40 rises 0.1 percent, London's FTSE 100 gains 0.3 percent, while Frankfurt's DAX 40 is down 0.1 percent.

"The start of 2023 has been generally positive for European markets, as optimism that inflation has peaked, coupled with falling oil and gas prices, suggests that central banks may not be forced to tighten as aggressively as feared in late 2022," commented Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets.

"Today's EU flash CPI for December could add further fuel to the inflation spike narrative if, as expected, headline inflation falls to 9.5 percent from the 10.1 percent recorded in November, although a pickup in core data would somewhat mitigate this."

In macroeconomic news, factory orders in Germany slumped 5.3 percent monthly in November 2022, after a downwardly revised 0.6 percent growth in October, doing worse than market forecasts of a 0.5 percent drop, recording the largest decline since October 2021.

In addition, as for retail sales in Germany, these increased by 1.1 percent monthly in November 2022, after a 2.8 percent decline in October and compared to market forecasts of a 1 percent increase.

From Japan, the services sector ended the year with further expansion in output and orders, according to data provided Friday by S&P Global.

Bank au Jibun's services activity index rose to 51.5 in December from 50.3 in November.

In Milan, on the main list of Piazza Affari, ERG rose 0.4 percent as did Snam after the latter reported Tuesday that natural gas inventories as of Dec. 31, 2022 in its subsidiary Stogit's storage facilities amounted to 9.3 billion cubic meters, plus 4.5 billion cubic meters of strategic storage.

This is about 2.6 billion more than the storage of 6.7 billion cubic meters recorded at the end of December 2021.

Stellantis, down 1.4 percent, said Thursday that it will "significantly expand" its partnership with Archer Aviation -- a California-based company that markets electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft -- after joining forces to produce Archer's Midnight eVTOL aircraft.

Stellantis has also agreed to provide up to USD150 million in equity for potential drawdown by Archer, at its discretion, in 2023 and 2024.

Hera rises 1.1 percent after announcing Thursday EUR150 million in district heating investments over the 2023-2026 period.

Of these, three Hera Group projects dedicated to district heating -- in Bologna, Ferrara, and Forlì -- have been awarded funding under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, mission "Green Revolution and Ecological Transition," totaling nearly EUR50 million.

Terna is in the green by 0.5 percent after signing an agreement to acquire 100 percent of the capital of Edyna Transmission, an Alperia Group company dedicated to the transmission sector, which owns 34 km of high-voltage power lines and two power stations in South Tyrol.

The assets are already part of the national electricity transmission grid and were taken over by Terna for a total value of about EUR14 million. The deal is subject to the fulfillment of certain conditions precedent.

Moncler, on the other hand, falls 0.5 percent, with Bernstein raising the targer price to EUR60.00 from EUR54.00.

On the Mid-Cap, PharmaNutra still does not trade. The company announced the signing of three new international commercial agreements for the distribution of products from the SiderAL® and Cetilar® lines in the Indonesian Republic, Kuwait, and Mexico.

With the signing of these new contracts, the PharmaNutra Group currently has 47 distributors in 70 countries across Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa.

Webuild is flat. The company announced that in the week of Dec. 28-30, 2022, inclusive, it purchased 40,500 of its own common shares.

On the Small-Cap, BasicNet rises 1.3 percent. The company disclosed Friday that it purchased 16,500 shares of its own common stock between Dec. 27 and Dec. 30. As of today, the company holds 3.9 million of its own shares, or 7.2 percent of its share capital.

Civitanavi Systems is in the black by 0.7 percent. The company announced that it has signed a ruling agreement with the Internal Revenue Service that will allow the company to have access to the Patent Box tax benefit for intellectual property for patents and know-how.

The tax benefit for the five-year period 2017-2021 will be accounted for in the fiscal year 2022 and the quantification will take place when preparing the financial statements.

Among SMEs, Clabo gives up 0.5 percent after gaining 22 percent at the close on Thursday and after announcing on Wednesday that U.S. subsidiary Howard McCray has concluded two commercial agreements worth a total of USD750,000, or EUR710,000, with 2 retail chains operating within the HoReCa channel.

The two trade agreements refer to deliveries to be made in the year 2023 regarding products in the "Dairy - Multipurpose" line.

Circle rises 1.3 percent. On Monday, the company announced that it has signed a new contract through the Log@Sea business network to supply advanced Gate Automation solutions to a leading Tyrrhenian multipurpose terminal.

"The order, the value of which exceeds EUR145,000, involves the implementation of a complete project of specialized hardware components and Milos software for the management of gate access control procedures for vehicles and Intermodal Transport Units. The topical moment and market confidence in the solutions behind our Connect 4 Agile Growth plan are confirmed," explained President and CEO, Luca Abatello.

Pharmacosmo is in the red by 2.6 percent. The company reported Wednesday that the CEO, Fabio de Concilio, bought more than 26,500 shares of the company's common stock.

In Asia, the Nikkei closed in the green 0.6 percent to 25,973.85, the Shanghai Composite rose 0.1 percent to 3,157.64, and the Hang Seng closed in the red 0.3 percent to 20,991.64.

In New York on Thursday, the Dow Jones closed 1.0 percent in the red at 32,930.08, the S&P gave up 1.2 percent to 3,808.10, and the Nasdaq left 1.5 percent on the sidelines at 10,305.24.

Among currencies, the euro changed hands at USD1.0520 versus USD1.0525 at Thursday's close. In contrast, the pound is worth USD1.1891 from USD1.1897 last night.

Among commodities, Brent crude is worth USD78.95 per barrel from USD78.14 per barrel last night. Gold, on the other hand, trades at USD1,842.45 an ounce from USD1,826.70 an ounce Thursday night.

Friday's macro calendar includes a slot for the UK construction PMI at 1030 CET, half an hour before consumer and business confidence, retail sales, and Eurozone inflation.

From the US, focus on December nonfarm payrolls, coming at 1430 CET, the same time as the unemployment rate. At 1600 CET, it will be the turn of factory orders and durable goods data. At 1900 CET, close the day with Baker Hughes drilling rig data.

Among companies in the Piazza Affari, no particular major events are expected.

By Claudia Cavaliere, Alliance News reporter

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