Markets disappointed by US inflation data, released at 2.30pm.
Economists expected a greater slowdown: the consensus, the average of the forecasts collected by specialized companies, was that it would go from 8.5% to 8.1%.
Instead the figure stopped at 8.3%.
Two numbers negatively surprised analysts: prices increased, albeit slightly, by 0.1% compared to the previous month.
And core inflation, that purified from energy and food, rose to 6.3%, from the previous 5.9%.
This has led to a sharp slowdown in equity indices, because the expectation is that the Fed, the American central bank, will continue and perhaps accelerate its rate hikes.
On Wall Street, the Nasdaq of technology stocks lost ground, -3.33%, while the Dow Jones fell by 2.20%.
In Milan, the main index before the US figure was up by almost 1 percent, in mid-afternoon it was -0.865, in line with the rest of Europe.
Reversal of trend also for gas: it remains below 200 euros per megawatt hour, at 193.5 euros, + 1.6% compared to yesterday.
In the morning, however, it had dropped to 181 euros.
Among the stocks in Piazza Affari, the industrial sector was bad, higher declines for Prysmian, Pirelli, Amplifon, StMicroelectronics, Diasorin, all down by more than 2%.