European stock markets close higher, Brent falls below 95 dollars
Volatile session on September 3: Piazza Affari rises 0.9% thanks to falling bond yields, crude oil retreats after five-week highs. Two diverging readings on the same day for Lottomatica stock.
The European session of September 3 closed in positive territory after a volatile trend, with Piazza Affari up 0.9%. The driver of the recovery was the decline in bond yields on both sides of the Atlantic, as reported by the Radiocor agency for Il Sole 24 Ore, the editorial staff of Milano Finanza and that of QuiFinanza on market data.
Bonds and crude oil, the two numbers driving the day
The interest rate picture remains the true reference point of the day. The Italian ten-year opened at 4.20%, the day after a session in which it had touched its highest point since the end of 2023. Across the Atlantic, the US Treasury note of the same maturity stood at 4.76%: the day before it had reached a value not seen in three years. The spread between BTP and Bund fell in the morning to 83 basis points.
On the energy front, the movement runs in the opposite direction compared to the previous day.
| Commodity | September 3 change | Level |
|---|---|---|
| Brent (future) | −1.46% | 94.22 dollars a barrel |
| WTI | −1.24% | 89.88 dollars a barrel |
Both benchmarks had closed on September 2 up 1%, at five-week highs. The retracement on September 3 should therefore be read as a correction after a rally, not as a reversal: levels remain within the upper range of recent weeks.
Lottomatica, two readings on the same day
The most interesting case of the Italian session is that of Lottomatica, which announced its merger with the Spanish company Cirsa, presented as its main European competitor. On September 2 the stock had lost ground after news of the deal broke. At 10 a.m. on September 3 the share was still down about 2%: according to Corriere dell’Economia, which processes Borsa Italiana data, this is a sign that investors had not yet digested the deal.
On the same day, however, Il Sole 24 Ore credits the stock with a “sprint” in Piazza Affari’s positive close. The two descriptions are not necessarily contradictory — one captures 10 a.m., the other the close — but the gap between the two accounts is a reminder of how financial reporting works: the hour at which one looks at the market determines the story that gets written. Here we stop at the observation: the available excerpts do not contain the stock’s final change at the end of the session.
The rest of the Milan market showed weakness concentrated in the luxury sector, with Brunello Cucinelli at −2.38%, Moncler at −2.19% and Salvatore Ferragamo at −3.27% at the opening.
What we don’t know
We do not know the terms of the merger between Lottomatica and Cirsa: the value of the deal, corporate structure, timeline and necessary authorizations do not appear in the excerpts. We do not have the closing change for the individual luxury stocks, recorded at the opening. We do not know what event triggered the decline in bond yields that supported the markets.
The figure that remains, and that weighs on public finances more than any single trading session, is the cost of debt: the Italian ten-year is trading above 4%, with the spread at 83 basis points.
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