(Alliance News) - Piazza Affari opens Tuesday's session flat, in line with futures forecasts and the performance of other European markets, today without macroeconomic or corporate cues.

"Today, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Lockheed Martin will release their quarterly results. Although the investment subsidiaries of BoFA and Morgan Stanley may have taken a hit, investors will look at how well these banks have benefited from the rate hike. Lockheed Martin, on the other hand, will undoubtedly continue to outperform as war and geopolitical tensions continue to escalate and increase defense budgets around the World," commented Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank.

"On the macro calendar, U.S. retail sales will be the focus of attention today as the resilience of U.S. consumer spending is another headache in the Federal Reserve's fight against inflation and the data could not surprise on the downside. According to data from Bank of America papers, spending in June fell 0.2 percent "but it's not over," and official numbers should show slow improvement."

"Better-than-expected data could fuel inflation expectations and slow the sell-off in the U.S. dollar, but unless we see really strong data, any improvement is unlikely to reverse the bearish winds in the medium term."

The FTSE Mib is flat at 28,609.91, the Mid-Cap is flat at 42,213.25, and the Small-Cap is also moving little, at 26,541.65, while Italy Growth rises 0.2 percent to 9,064.34.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 opened up 0.1 percent to 7,416.17, Paris' CAC 40 is just above par at 7,291.99, and Frankfurt's DAX 40 drops 0.1 percent to 16,052.57.

On the main list in Piazza Affari, Terna is at parity after launching a EUR650 million green bond issue.

The bond is part of the soceity's EUR9.00 billion Euro Medium Term Notes program, rated 'BBB+' by S&P and '(P)Baa2' by Moody's. It has a term of 10 years, maturing in July 2033, with a coupon of 3.875% and an issue price of 99.1%, with a spread of 90 basis points over midswap.

Terna expects the net proceeds of the issue to be used to finance the company's "eligible green projects," identified or to be identified based on Terna's green bond framework.

UniCredit gives up 0.4 percent after purchasing 232,685 of its own ordinary shares between July 10 and July 14.

The shares were taken over at an average unit price of EUR21.5987, for a total consideration of EUR5.0 million. To date, UniCredit has purchased a total of 125.6 million treasury shares, representing 6.5 percent of its share capital.

Eni falls 0.7 percent after HSBC downgraded the stock to 'hold' from 'buy' and cut its target price to EUR14.20 from EUR15.50.

Inwit, on the other hand, gives up 0.1 percent. The company bought back own shares for EUR3.9 million and collected a slight target price increase from Berenberg, to EUR13.60 from EUR13.50, with 'buy' recommendation confirmed.

On the Mid-Cap, in the absence of any particular corporate news, LU-VE does better than all at the start, up 1.7 percent, while Sesa--whose accounts arrive today--drops 2.9 percent and is at the bottom.

It should be noted that some stocks on the list are not yet trading and that, in any case, volumes on the others are decidedly low.

Among the small-cap companies, Il Sole 24 Ore does not trade after appointing Elisabetta Floccari as the company's new Chief Financial Officer, effective immediately.

Floccari, over the course of her career has gained significant experience in administration, finance and control and in the role of CFO in leading companies in the engineering, automation systems and construction sectors, where she also oversaw M&A transactions domestically and internationally. Completing his professional profile are skills in ESG and the achievement in 2022 of a Master's degree in Sustainability Management at Ca' Foscari University of Venice.

No negotiations also for Triboo, which announced Tuesday that it has appointed Matteo Pizzagalli as its new Chief Financial Officer, effective immediately.

Pizzagalli, 36, worked for 12 years at EY, after graduating in Administration, Corporate Finance and Control from Bocconi University, holding managerial positions of increasing responsibility and providing services for major multinational groups. He will replace the resigning Matteo Cornelli.

Among the SMEs listed on Piazza Affari, finally, there are decidedly few stocks trading on this flat day for European markets.

NVP is not among them, despite the announcement a short while ago of the signing of a contract worth EUR1.4 million with OBS - Olympic Broadcasting Services for the XXXIII Olympic Games to be held in Paris from July 26 to August 11, 2024.

NVP, after the positive experience at the Tokyo Olympics, held in 2021, will provide OBS with nearly 100 UHD broadcast cameras and 4 OB vans: specifically, there will be OB 4 and OB 6, OB 5 and the flagship of the fleet, OB 7, all ultra hi?tech mobile infrastructures capable of producing in native 4K HDR format and exceeding the strict quality and performance standards imposed by OBS.

Fenix Entertainment by 19% and Pharmacosmo by 7.6%, registering the best performance on the list. Fenix has received a request from Negma Group Investment Ltd to convert three bonds, with a total value of EUR30,000. The conversion price is EUR0.01, and the bonds entitle Negma to subscribe for 3.0 million newly issued ordinary shares of the company.

In Asia, with Tokyo and Hong Kong markets reopening, the Nikkei rose 0.3 percent to 32,493.89, the Shanghai Composite fell 0.4 percent to 3,197.82, and the Hang Seng lost 2.0 percent to 19,030.74.

In New York, the Dow Jones closed up 0.2% at 34,585.35 Monday, the Nasdaq rose 0.9% to 14,244.95 while the S&P 500 gained 0.4% to 4,522.79.

Among currencies, the euro changed hands at USD1.1271 against USD1.1236 in Monday's European equities close while the pound was instead worth USD1.3098 from USD1.3082 last night.

Among commodities, in a bearish trend, Brent crude is worth USD78.41 per barrel versus USD78.90 per barrel at Monday's close. Gold, meanwhile, trades at USD1,961.97 an ounce from USD1,954.17 an ounce on Monday evening.

On Tuesday's macroeconomic calendar, which is poor in major economic events, at 1430 CEST, US retail sales are expected along with Canada's inflation.

At 1515 CEST, it will be the turn of U.S. industrial and manufacturing production while, at 2230 CEST, data on weekly U.S. oil inventories will be released.

Among the companies listed on Piazza Affari, Sesa's results are expected.

By Giuseppe Fabio Ciccomascolo, Alliance News senior reporter

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