After a positive start to the week, today's session sees Piazza Affari down slightly, in line with the weak performance of other European bourses.

In the absence of clear directional signals from Wall Street futures, investors are continuing their end-of-quarter portfolio adjustments amid a climate that does not hide nervousness about the upcoming elections in France and waiting for some important macro data later in the week.

Among the latter, the most anticipated is Friday's U.S. core Pce index, one of the inflation measures most closely monitored by the Federal Reserve.

The main macro data this afternoon is the June U.S. consumer confidence.

As of 1 p.m., the Ftse Mib gives up 0.33 percent. Volumes around 850 million.

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Leonardo slips to the bottom of the Ftse Mib, down 3.5%, in a heavy session for the entire European aerospace sector due to Airbus' profit warning. Yesterday, the Italian group announced a four-month halt to production at the Aerostructures division's Grottaglie site due to a reduction in output by Boeing. According to analysts, the slowdown was expected and no impact on the group's guidance for 2024 is seen, "although reducing the probability of a possible upside," Equita notes.

In the letter today the entire industrial sector. Prysmian and Iveco mark declines around 2 percent, followed by Interpump and Pirelli.

Stm (-1.9%) tries to reduce early losses in the wake of Nvidia's rally in the Wall Street premarket after yesterday's sharp decline and affecting the entire European opening this morning.

On the opposite front, rises in oil and energy are helping to support the index. Saipem rises 2 percent while ENI rises 0.65 percent with analysts pointing out in this morning's reports that CEO Claudio Descalzi's statements yesterday on the good likelihood of closing the sale of a minority stake in Enilive by year-end, with the same approach applied for Plenitude.

Enel gains 0.9 percent supported by positive comments from Barclays in a report on the company published today. The broker reiterated its 'Overweight' recommendation on the stock with a price target of 8 euros.

(Andrea Mandalà, editing Claudia Cristoferi, Francesca Piscioneri)