Inflation in Italy at the top since 1986 does not shake Milan, EU stock exchanges without direction

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(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) – After a semester to forget, the European stock exchanges try to take the path of recovery in the first session of July, with the indices proceeding with however very modest increases. Piazza Affari is not caught off guard by the inflation figure for June, which has risen to its highest since 1986, and even the rest of the Old Continent does not pay for the further acceleration of prices (8.6% against 8.1% in May, a level never reached before since the birth of the Economic and Monetary Union), even if they worsen fears of a possible recession and a more aggressive than expected monetary tightening by the ECB. Thus, in the aftermath of a session in which the nightmare recession crushed the lists with Milan closing at the lows in 19 months, the FTSE MIB is up slightly, as well as the CAC 40 in Paris, the DAX 40 in Frankfurt , the IBEX 35 in Madrid, the FT-SE 100 in London and the AEX in Amsterdam. It must be said that the batch of PMI indices did not reduce volatility on European markets, which move without a precise direction pending the key inflation data.

A nervousness that comes after an early part of the year to forget for investors, with Milan losing over 22% in the half year, while Wall Street recorded the worst first half since 1970 on the S&P 500 index. Meanwhile on the macroeconomic front conflicting data are recorded: the confidence index of manufacturing companies, measured on a quarterly basis by the Bank of Japan (Tankan index) shows a sharp slowdown at the end of June; on the contrary, manufacturing production in China rebounded beyond expectations in the same month.

Inflation in Italy at the top since 1986, in the Eurozone jumps to 8.6%

The price rush in Italy does not stop. According to the first Istat estimate, in June the national consumer price index for the entire community (Nic index) recorded a monthly increase of 1.2% and 8% on an annual basis (from 6.8 % of the previous month) reaching the highest levels for over 36 years. Istat underlines that the annual level reached in June is the maximum since January June, inflation accelerates again, rising to a level (+ 8.0%) that has not been recorded since January 1986 (when it was equal to +8.2 %).
The picture does not change in Europe, quite the contrary. Inflation in the Eurozone continues to grind records: in June it reached 8.6%, (compared to 8.1% in May), a level never recorded since the Economic and Monetary Union was created. The flash estimate on the trend in consumer prices was released by Eurostat. The main component affecting the growth in average inflation was energy, a sector in which the increase on an annual basis was 41.9% in June compared to 39.1% in May.

Eurozone manufacturing SMEs at a minimum from 2020, down in Italy

Dark and dark news from the European manufacturing sector. In Italy, the manufacturing PMI index in June dropped from 51.9 to 50.9 points, a figure however slightly better than the consensus estimates (50.8) after that of 51.9 in May. In France it went from 54.6 to 51.4 points, while in Germany it fell from 54.8 to 52 points, recording the weakest expansion in two years. The overall Eurozone rate fell from 54.6 to 52.1 points, the fifth monthly decline that brings the index to its lowest since August 2020.

In Milan down tech and cars, Atlantia and Leonardo are saved

The high-tech sector falls on the Ftse Mib with Stmicroelectron and Nexi. You oppose the banks in the aftermath of the ECB’s intention to ask credit institutions to include the scenario of a possible recession in their business plans and to use this new calculation basis to approve dividends. The worst are Intesa Sanpaolo and Banca Mediolanum, while Unicredit is on the rise. Leonardo – Finmeccanica also goes against the trend, while Atlantia is just below parity, which on Thursday, with the markets closed, signed the closing on Yunex.