(Alliance News) - On Friday, major European stock markets confirmed expectations and opened in negative territory on a quiet morning on the macroeconomic front.

Thus, the FTSE Mib is in the red 0.4 percent to 23,955.01, the Mid-Cap is down 0.1 percent to 39,758.12, as is the Small-Cap to 27,701.40, while Italy Growth is in fractional green at 9,247.61.

In Europe, Paris' CAC 40 gives up 0.6 percent, London's FTSE 100 loses 0.2 percent, and Frankfurt's DAX 40 is down 0.6 percent.

In macroeconomic news, the annual inflation rate in Spain fell to 5.8 percent in December 2022 from 6.8 percent in the previous month, the lowest since November 2021. In contrast, the core inflation rate, which excludes volatile items such as unprocessed food and energy, rose to 6.9 percent from 6.3 percent.

On a monthly basis, consumer prices rose 0.3 percent after a 0.1 percent decline in November.

In the UK, the Nationwide house price index rose 2.8% y/y in December 2022, much less than November's 4.4% and compared to market expectations of 2.3%.

Compared with the previous month, prices fell 0.1 percent. The seasonally adjusted figure also shows that December marked the fourth consecutive monthly decline in prices, the worst since 2008, which left prices 2.5 percent below the August peak.

"Brent crude oil rebounded slightly today by USD0.56 to USD84.02 per barrel, but is still far from the highs of over USD120 recorded earlier this year. The high price environment in 2022 has helped oil stocks outperform the rest of the market, but could be difficult to follow in 2023," commented Derren Nathan, head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown.

"Nationwide tells us that most forecasters expect the unemployment rate to rise toward 5 percent over the next few years-a significant increase, but one that would still be low by historical standards. In addition, household balance sheets remain in good shape, with significant protection from rising borrowing costs, at least for a period, with about 85 percent of fixed-rate mortgage balances. Although a moderate decline in house prices of 5.0 percent is likely, it would likely take a significant deterioration in the labor market or higher mortgage rates to generate a double-digit decline."

In Milan, on the main list in Piazza Affari, only Azimut Holding, up 0.2 percent, and Stellantis, up 0.1 percent, are seen in the green.

The rest of the Agnelli Galaxy falls 0.5 percent with Ferrari and CNH Industrial, and 0.9 percent with Iveco.

Eni--in the red by 0.7 percent--reported Thursday that Plenitude, through its U.S. subsidiary Eni New Energy US, has acquired the 81 MW Kellam photovoltaic plant located in North Texas, 50 miles from the Dallas Fort Worth metropolitan complex. The plant, sold by Hanwha Qcells USA, joins the other assets in Texas and the rest of the United States in Plenitude's portfolio, which with this transaction reaches an installed capacity of 878 MW in the U.S. market. The plant is built on more than 150 hectares of land and the energy produced will be sold to a local power company.

UniCredit gives up 0.2 percent after announcing Thursday that it has completed a new securitization transaction of a portfolio of consumer loans originated by the bank with a total size of about EUR850 million in recent days. Senior and mezzanine tranches of the notes issued by the securitization vehicle were purchased by the European Investment Bank for a total value of EUR700 million and by the European Investment Fund for an additional EUR50 million against UniCredit's commitment to provide additional credit of an equal amount to Italian small and medium-sized enterprises and mid-cap companies over the next 36 months.

In the cadet segment, Tinexta lost 0.4 percent. The stock showed unusually high volume, with more than 135,000 pieces traded against a three-month average of 45,000. made known Wednesday of the signing of a binding agreement to acquire a 20 percent stake in Defence Tech Holding Società Benefit through a wholly owned vehicle.

As part of a broader program of action on impaired loans and in line with its derisking and asset quality improvement strategy, Banca Popolare di Sondrio announced Thursday that it had concluded -- together with 14 other participating institutions -- the multi-originator securitization of non-performing loans called "Luzzatti Pop NPLs 2022," with a total gross book value of EUR545 million. The stock gives up 0.1 percent.

Seco rises 0.8%, rearing its head again after two bearish sessions.

Juventus FC gives up 0.5 percent after announcing that the shareholders' meeting approved the financial statements for the year to June 30, 2022, which ended with a loss for the year of EUR238.1 million ispared to a loss of EUR226.4 million in the 2020-21 financial year. The loss was covered by use of the share premium reserve. The meeting also viewed the consolidated financial statements as of June 30, 2022, which showed a loss of EUR239.3 million from the loss of EUR226.8 million in fiscal year 2020-21.

On the Small-Cap, PLC is flat at EUR1.56 per share. It is mentioned that the company last week approved the 2023-2027 business plan in which it expects EUR6.0 million in dividends and a gradually growing Ebitda driven by an increase in revenues - 2x to 2027 vs. 2023 - and a major scale effect of overhead costs, with end-of-plan targets of around EUR12-14 million thanks to contributions from all business areas.

Itway - down 3.2% - reported Wednesday that its subsidiary 4Science has been admitted to the Vienna Stock Exchange, where it makes its debut today. It has a market capitalization of EUR28.0 million, or a price per share of EUR4.0.

Among SMEs, while most stocks are not yet affected by trading, Defence Tech Holding is flat after rising 14 percent, easily taking the lead on Thursday in closing.

In Asia, the Nikkei closed in fractional green at 26,094.50, the Shanghai Composite rose 0.5 percent to 3,089.26 and the Hang Seng finished up 0.2 percent at 19,781.41.

In New York on Thursday, the Dow Jones closed in the green 1.1 percent to 33,220.80, the S&P gained 1.8 percent to 3,849.28, and the Nasdaq picked up 2.6 percent to 10,478.09.

Among currencies, the euro changed hands at USD1.0661 versus USD1.0665 at Thursday's close. In contrast, the pound is worth USD1.2059 from USD1.2060 on Thursday evening.

Among commodities, Brent crude is worth USD83.85 per barrel from USD83.20 per barrel on Thursday evening. Gold, on the other hand, trades at USD1,823.20 an ounce from USD1,814.70 an ounce on Wednesday evening.

On Friday's economic calendar, in the afternoon, from the US, space will be given to the Baker Hughes report at 1900 CET while, at 2130 CET, as usual on Fridays, will come the COT Report.

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

By Claudia Cavaliere, Alliance News reporter

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