European stock markets remain positive after Christine Lagarde's speech in Davos at the closing panel of the World Economic Forum.
The topic of cutting interest rates remains in the spotlight, while the effects of geopolitical tensions are assessed.
The euro rises to 1.0885 against the dollar.
The Stoxx 600 index gains 0.2% ahead of the start of Wall Street where futures are positive.
London (+0.4%), Frankfurt and Milan (+0.3%), Milan (+0.2%) and Paris (+0.1%) increased.
Price lists are driven by utilities (+0.5%) which are looking at an increase in gas prices to 28.9 euros.
Energy is weak (-0.06%) with oil little moving, the WTI stands at 74.1 dollars a barrel and Brent at 79.2 dollars.
Government bond yields are falling.
The spread between BTPs and Bunds drops to 153 points, with the Italian ten-year rate reducing by seven basis points to 3.84% and the German one by three points to 2.31%.
On Piazza Affari the banks were brilliant with rumors about risk and a report from UBS where analysts claim to prefer Italian credit institutions to those of other European countries.
Purchases for Bper (+1.9%), Banco Bpm (+1.8%), Mediobanca (+1.6%), Mps (+1.5%) and Intesa (+0.7%).
Unicredit also did well, gaining 0.7% to 26.73 euros, reaching its highest level since 3 December 2015. Piazza Gae Aulenti gained over 2.7% on the eve of the move, on the hypothesis of an interest in Popolare Sondrio (+0.9% ), of which, however, the CEO Andrea Orcel denied the purchase of securities.
Unipol goes up (+0.9%), shareholder of Sondrio and Bper with shares of around 20%.
Eni negative (-0.6%), after rumors about the sale of a stake of up to 4%.
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