(Alliance News) - Piazza Affari closed slightly lower on Thursday, the day after the release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest FOMC meeting and after Istat reported that inflation in Italy slowed only marginally year-on-year in December, to 11.6 percent from 11.8 percent in November.

Of note is the dollar's significant jump against other major currencies--euro and pound sterling above all--after today's ADP data.

U.S. private businesses created 235,000 jobs in December 2022, well above market forecasts of 150,000, according to data from Automatic Data Processing on Thursday. Service providers added 213,000 jobs, led by the leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, and education and health services sectors. The goods-producing sector increased by 22,000, led by construction with 41,000 place.

For Chris Beauchamp, chief analyst at IG, "the dollar is looking for a reason to strengthen, since yesterday's Fed minutes provided nothing new. Today's ADP payrolls report, which shattered expectations and indicated signs of strong wage growth, was just the ticket for a rally, although a rally of more than a few days will need much stronger data as the Fed's tightening is expected to reach its apogee in the coming months."

After the data, the euro changed hands at USD1.0525 versus USD1.0619 at Wednesday's close. In contrast, the pound is worth USD1.1897 from USD1.2048 last night.

The FTSE Mib closed down 0.1 percent to 24,832.70, the Mid-Cap lost 0.1 percent to 40,614.78, the Small-Cap fell slightly to 28,288.48, and Italy Growth finished the session down 0.1 percent to 9,390.35.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 rose 0.6 percent, Paris' CAC 40 closed down 0.2 percent and Frankfurt's DAX 40 gave up 0.3 percent.

On the mostly bearish main list of Piazza Affari, oils recovered as Brent crude rose and slowly approached USD80 a barrel. Tenaris rises 2.9%. Also doing well are Saipem, up 0.4 percent, and Eni, up 0.2 percent.

ERG gives up 1.6.% as does Snam after the latter reported Tuesday that natural gas stocks as of Dec. 31, 2022 in its subsidiary Stogit's storage facilities amount to 9.3 billion cubic meters, to which 4.5 billion cubic meters of strategic storage must be added.

This is about 2.6 billion more than the stock of 6.7 billion cubic meters recorded at the end of December 2021.

Stellantis, up 1.0 percent, said Thursday that it will "significantly expand" its partnership with Archer Aviation -- a California-based company that markets electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft -- after joining forces to produce Archer's Midnight eVTOL aircraft.

Stellantis also agreed to provide up to USD150 million in equity for a potential drawdown by Archer, at its discretion, in 2023 and 2024.

Hera lost 3.4 percent after announcing Thursday EUR150 million in district heating investments over the 2023-2026 period.

Of these, three Hera Group projects dedicated to district heating -- in Bologna, Ferrara, and Forlì -- were awarded funding under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, mission "Green Revolution and Ecological Transition," totaling nearly EUR50 million.

Terna gave up 1.9 percent after signing an agreement to acquire 100 percent of the capital of Edyna Transmission, an Alperia Group company dedicated to the transmission sector, which owns 34 km of high-voltage power lines and two power stations in South Tyrol.

The assets are already part of the national electricity transmission grid and were taken over by Terna for a total value of about EUR14 million. The deal is subject to the fulfillment of certain conditions precedent.

Moncler, meanwhile, rose 0.4 percent, with Bernstein raising the target price to EUR60.00 from EUR54.00.

On the Mid-Cap, Industrie De Nora remains in the upper quarters, up 1.7 percent.

Piaggio, up 2.6 percent, and Saras, which, like the other oil-related companies on the Mib, is following a bullish trend, up 2.7 percent.

PharmaNutra is down 0.5 percent. The company announced the signing of three new international commercial agreements for the distribution of products from the SiderAL® and Cetilar® lines in the Indonesian Republic, Kuwait, and Mexico.

With the signing of these new contracts, the PharmaNutra Group currently has 47 distributors in 70 countries across Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa.

Webuild lost 0.5 percent. On Monday, it announced that in the week of Dec. 28-30, 2022, inclusive, it bought back 40,500 of its own common shares.

On the Small-Cap, BasicNet gained 0.5 percent. The company disclosed Friday that it purchased 16,500 shares of its own common stock between Dec. 27 and Dec. 30. As of today, the company holds 3.9 million treasury shares, or 7.2 percent of its share capital.

Civitanavi Systems rose 1.3 percent. The company announced that it has signed a ruling agreement with the Internal Revenue Service that will allow the company to have access to the Patent Box tax benefit for intellectual property for patents and know-how.

The tax benefit for the five-year period 2017-2021 will be accounted for in the fiscal year 2022 and the quantification will take place when the financial statements are prepared.

Among SMEs, Clabo gained 22 percent after being suspended for excess volatility for most of the session and after it announced on Wednesday that its U.S. subsidiary Howard McCray has concluded two commercial agreements worth a total of USD750,000, or EUR710,000, with 2 retail chains operating within the HoReCa channel.

The two trade agreements refer to deliveries to be made in the year 2023 regarding products in the "Dairy - Multipurpose" line.

Circle rose 1.1 percent. On Monday, the company announced that it has signed a new contract through the Log@Sea business network to supply advanced Gate Automation solutions to a leading Tyrrhenian multipurpose terminal.

"The order, the value of which exceeds EUR145,000, involves the implementation of a complete project of specialized hardware components and Milos software for the management of gate access control procedures for vehicles and Intermodal Transport Units. The topical moment and market confidence in the solutions behind our Connect 4 Agile Growth plan are confirmed," explained president and CEO, Luca Abatello.

Pharmacosmo closed up 1.5 percent. The company reported Wednesday that CEO Fabio de Concilio bought more than 26,500 shares of the company's common stock.

In New York, the Dow is down 1.0 percent to 32,935.04, the Nasdaq gives up 1.2 percent to 10,337.17 and the S&P 500 is down 1.0 percent to 3,814.51.

Among commodities, Brent crude is worth USD78.14 per barrel from USD78.34 per barrel last night. Gold, on the other hand, trades at USD1,826.70 an ounce from USD1,865.60 an ounce Wednesday night.

Friday's macro calendar opens with Japan's services PMI, due at 0130 CET, followed by Germany's factory orders at 0800 CET, coming 45 minutes before France's consumer spending and asset reserve numbers.

At 1030 CET, room for the U.K. construction PMI, half an hour before consumer and business confidence, retail sales, and Eurozone inflation.

From the US, focus on December nonfarm payrolls, coming at 1430 CET, at the same time as the unemployment rate. At 1600 CET, it will be the turn of factory orders and durable goods data. At 1900 CET, close the day with Baker Hughes drilling rig data.

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

By Giuseppe Fabio Ciccomascolo, Alliance News senior reporter

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