EUROPEAN EQUITIES UPDATE: Stocks erase morning gains amid waning sentiment post-NVIDIA (-2%) earnings

STOXX 600: +0.1%

• Bourses opened firm, initially edging higher throughout the morning before very modest pressure as NVIDIA began trading in the premarket, shares -2%
• Notable outperformance in the CAC 40, with Brandy and luxury stocks helping the rebound following similar price action on Wednesday after the Swatch CEO dampened tariff fears.
• OMX Copenhagen also fares well with wind names and pharma boosted, the former helped after Orsted was upgraded at Berenberg despite recent struggles.
• Soft EZ sentiment data failed to spark any fireworks and had little impact on stocks. Ahead is ECB Minutes for the meeting where it stood pat on rates; this event is not expected to spark a major reaction with just 9bps of easing priced by year-end.

Sectors: Mixed

• Began the session almost entirely in positive territory, though have since moved to show a mixed picture as stocks wane a little.
• Consumer products and services at the top of the pile, helped by the aforementioned luxury strength. LVMH (+3.5%), Hermes (+1.7%), Swatch (+2.3%), Richemont (+3.0%).
• Utilities sits at the bottom, pushed lower by clear underperformance in UK-listed Drax (x), after the FCA opened an investigation into its annual reports from 2021–2023.

US Equity Futures: ES U/C, NQ U/C, RTY +0.8%

• Stateside, stocks are mixed post NVIDIA earnings.
• RTY outperforms given its smaller exposure to tech, while ES and NQ trade unchanged. NVIDIA holds a 14.43% weighting in the Nasdaq 100 and 7.63% in the S&P 500.
• NVIDIA initially kicked off the premarket lower by 2.2%, though losses have since moderated a little, with shares -2% after it reported a beat on its top and bottom lines but with focus on the lower-than-expected data centre revenue. Further, the outlook forecast was not as strong as some had expected, with Q3 rev. expected at USD 53bln vs some expectations as high as USD 60bln. In detail: Q2 2026 (USD): Adj. EPS 1.05 (exp. 1.00), Revenue 46.74bln (exp. 45.51bln). Q3 revenue view 54bln (exp. 53bln). The company also announced an additional USD 60bln buyback.
• The docket ahead is a busy one. Jobless claims are expected to fall to 230k from 235k, and with US Q2 GDP is also scheduled for the same time.