(Finance) – Lo spread was growing today, with the Italian bond which lost ground and did worse than its counterparties. At the center of investors’ attention are the moves of the ECB, amid the rumors of the press and the public statements of central bankers who show some dissent on the direction to take. Triggering the bond sales during the morning was the Financial Times’ rumor that Frankfurt is studying “a way to prevent banks from earning billions of euros in extra profits from the ultra-cheap loan program launched during the pandemic once it will start raising interest rates later this month. “
As usual, the “peripheral” government bonds of the euro zone suffer the most. The Italian ten-year BTP shows an increase of around 16 basis points, with a return of 3.23%. The difference between the yield of the Italian ten-year BTP and the German ten-year Bund opened the session at 177 basis points from 183 at the previous closing. He then climbed to 193 points, before closing at 190 points. The ten-year Spanish marks a 13 basis point rise to 2.40%, that Greek by 1 basis point to 3.48% and that Portuguese by 13 basis points to 2.39%. The yield of the bund German it is up by 10 basis points to 1.33%.
As for Italy, the operators also looked tomatchpreviously scheduled for this afternoon, between the Prime Minister Mario Draghi and the leader of the 5 Star Movement Giuseppe Conte, scheduled to try to mend the recent tensions within the majority. The meeting was postponed to Wednesday 6 July after the premier’s change of program linked to the tragedy on the Marmolada. The expectation is that Conte will ask for Draghi to open up on issues such as citizenship income, super bonuses and weapons supplied to Ukraine.
During the day came the statements of two very influential central bankers in the eurozone. The governor of the Bundesbank, Joachim Nagel, has held back on the adoption of an anti-fragmentation tool that benefits the countries of Southern Europe. “I would like warn against the use of monetary policy tools to limit the widening of spreadsas it is practically impossible to establish with certainty whether it is justified or not, “he said during a speech at the Frankfurt Euro Finance Summit.
During the same event, there was also a more “dovish” speech. The Vice-President of the ECB Luis de Guindos he reiterated Frankfurt’s commitment to developing an anti-fragmentation instrument, which should favor a correct monetary policy framework. “We will react to avoid fragmentation with adequate clauses aimed at avoiding moral hazard“, stressed the Spanish economist.