(Alliance News) - Piazza Affari closed higher on Thursday's session but worrying the markets is the BTP-Bund spread, which approached the psychological 200 basis point threshold, only coming close to it.

For Edward Moya of Oanda, "equities are down slightly while calm emerges in the bond market. Wall Street still sees a lot of strength in the labor market. The S&P 500 index turned negative after weekly jobless claims slightly lower than expected. The risk of higher rates remains as a slowdown in the labor market should have occurred before the vacation hiring season."

"Positioning ahead of tomorrow's NFP is likely to be limited as it appears that most leading indicators suggest that employment growth will remain healthy, which should keep the bond market sell-off strong. A strong bond number will probably be expected as we have only seen a lack of ADP private payrolls. ? Eventually the increase in the cost of capital will support a weakening labor market, but it does not look like this will be reflected in tomorrow's report."

The FTSE Mib closed up 0.2 percent to 27,490.81, the Mid-Cap finished around parity at 38,871.41, the Small-Cap fell 0.1 percent to 25,146.62, and Italy Growth lost 0.5 percent to 8,093.47.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 closed up 0.6 percent, Paris' CAC 40 finished slightly higher and Frankfurt's DAX 40 lost 0.2 percent.

On the main list of the Italian stock exchange, Prysmian closed up 4.2 percent after announcing Thursday its new strategy, including the reorganization of its business into four new segments. In a statement, the company also disclosed the group's financial and non-financial targets to 2027.

The group expects adjusted Ebitda to grow to EUR2 billion in 2027 from EUR1.49 billion in 2022.

Saipem is up 4.1 percent after announcing Thursday that it has signed - in consortium with National Petroleum Construction Company - a Letter of Award with ADNOC for a new contract for Package 1 of the Hail and Ghasha Development Project in the United Arab Emirates.

The value of Saipem's share is approximately USD4.1 billion.

On the bearish side, FinecoBank lost 2.0 percent after reporting Thursday that net inflows for September were EUR446.7 million, down from EUR514.5 million in the same month a year earlier.

Pirelli gave up 1.0 percent after signs of Chinese disengagement. "Last September 29, the shareholders' agreement on a 5 percent stake in Pirelli shares held by Silk Road Fund and entered into with Sinochem expired. In total, Beijing's shareholders have 46 percent, but after the Italian government exercised its Golden Power, they have lost virtually all concrete power over Bicocca," as Alliance News columnist Francesco Bonazzi commented.

"At current prices, then, 9 percent of Silk Road Fund would be worth EUR400 million and 37 percent of Sinochem would be worth EUR1.65 billion. The Chinese, who are directly controlled by the state and the Communist Party, had entered Pirelli in 2015 by investing about EUR7 billion (including EUR4 billion in debt taken over). Marco Tronchetti Provera, who has always maintained the lead despite the fact that his Camfin had just 14 percent, with Beijing's capital was able to repay a large part of the debt with Italian banks and prevent Pirelli from being taken over by locust funds."

On the Mid-Cap, Maire Tecnimont did best of all with a 4.4 percent rise after reporting that Tecnimont, part of the Integrated E&C Solutions business unit, signed a letter of award with ADNOC on Thursday for the onshore treatment plant at the Hail and Ghasha project.

The total value of the EPC contract is approximately USD8.7 billion and the project is scheduled for completion during 2028.

Iren -- up 0.4 percent -- announced Tuesday that it has finalized with Granda Energie #3 and through its subsidiary Iren Green Generation, the acquisition of 100 percent of the special purpose vehicle WFL. The value of the 100 percent stake acquired by Iren is EUR2.2 million in addition to the repayment of the shareholder loan made by Granda Energie #3 to WFL for the realization of the investment.

On the Small-Cap, algoWatt rose 1.7 percent after reporting that it has obtained a EUR255,000 financing for digital energy solution provider & system integrator activities on the ResilMesh project, funded under the Horizon Europe program.

In the ambitious context of holistic protection of critical infrastructures, the ResilMesh project will develop a set of innovative tools for the realization of a Security Orchestration and Analytics Platform Architecture - SOAPA founded on the concept of cybesecurity awareness to improve the resilience of digital infrastructures through the achievement of several objectives.

Unidata - up 2.7 percent - announced Wednesday night that its board of directors approved the plan to merge its wholly owned subsidiaries UNITWT, Berenix and TWT.

Immobiliare Grande Distribuzione SIIQ--up 1.5 percent--reported that it has approved the issuance of a EUR400.0 million senior unsubordinated non-convertible bond.

In addition, the board decided to initiate an exchange offer of the bond maturing in November 2024 and an offer to repurchase the existing bonds for a cash amount on the condition that a certain amount from the repurchase be reinvested in the purchase of new bonds.

Among SMEs, Circle rose 5.0 percent after it announced Thursday that the group won a tender issued by the European Maritime Safety Agency to carry out a feasibility study on the development of the Single Maritime Window for a group of neighboring countries that includes Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia, Georgia, Moldova, Turkey and Ukraine. The order is worth about EUR144,000.

EdiliziAcrobatica also did well, up 4.9 percent, after announcing Wednesday that Vincenzo Polimeni is the new country manager for France and Monaco.

Almawave, up 2.6 percent, reported Thursday that subsidiary SisTer won the COMESA - Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa tender to enhance the Africa Information Highway public data platform, which the African Development Bank makes available to all African countries and regional and subregional organizations.

Spindox closed in a tie. PMI announced the formal admission of the WICO - Water Quality Innovative Control by Artificial Intelligence - project by the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy to funding under the PNRR.

Together with Archa, lead partner, CNR, Acque and Dielectrik, Spindox will develop an intelligent platform for monitoring water for human consumption. The system will target the Lower Valdarno aqueduct, which serves more than 800,000 citizens.

The total investment of the five partners is EUR5.9 million, matched by a total facility of EUR2.8 million, of which Spindox will receive about EUR1.1 million in grants.

In New York, the Dow is down 0.4 percent to 33,015.12, the Nasdaq is down 1.0 percent to 13,106.06 and the S&P 500 gives up 0.7 percent to 4,235.04.

Among currencies, the euro changes hands at USD1.0519 against USD1.0519 recorded at Wednesday's European equities close while the pound is worth USD1.2150 instead from USD1.2150 on Wednesday evening.

Among commodities, Brent crude is worth USD85.74 per barrel from USD87.15 per barrel at Wednesday's close. Gold, meanwhile, trades at USD1,819.87 an ounce from USD1,824.63 an ounce on Wednesday evening.

Friday's macroeconomic calendar, still devoid of events from China, opens with Japan's household consumption data, at 0130 CEST, followed by France's trade balance, at 0845 CEST, and Italy's retail sales numbers, at 1000 CEST.

From the U.S., room for private sector employment data, at 1430 CEST, while those for Baker Hughes drilling rigs will come in at 1900 CEST.

Among the companies in Piazza Affari, the accounts of Juventus Football Club, SS Lazio and Lifestyle Group are expected.

By Giuseppe Fabio Ciccomascolo, Alliance News senior reporter

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