EUROPEAN EQUITIES UPDATE: Stocks gain into a busy US earnings slate, AZN LN +2.5% after results

STOXX 600: +0.5%

• European bourses opened mostly higher and continued to trade with an upward bias throughout the morning, which follows a mostly higher session on Wall Street, but in contrast to mixed price action across the APAC region.


• Newsflow has quietened down a touch over the past couple of days; of course, much of Monday’s session was dominated by the EU-US trade agreement. In reaction to the announcement, stocks opened higher but waned throughout the session as EU leaders/companies felt the agreement would have a continued negative impact on the region. Nonetheless, the “worst-case” scenario had been avoided, which could have involved the start of a tariff war between two major economies.


• Trade aside, so far markets have had Spanish Estimated GDP (higher than expected) and the ECB SCE (1-year inflation expected lower than previously envisaged whilst 3- and 5-year expectations remained unchanged). These figures had little impact on indices.


• As for the rest of the day, markets await trade updates out of US-China – newsflow thus far has been very muted. US President Trump is also set to give some remarks later today; subject matter is currently unknown, but perhaps some further information on his latest deadline for Putin to end the Ukrainian war and/or updates on trade. That aside, the docket is headlined by US data (see US section below).

Sectors: Positive

• European sectors hold a positive bias, with only a handful of industries residing in the red.


• Industrials takes the top spot, lifted by significant post-earnings strength in Philips (+13%), where it reported a strong EBITDA beat & raised its margin for the FY – its commentary on China was also fairly optimistic. Travel & Leisure follows closely behind, with Entain (+1.5%) doing much of the heavy lifting, after its H1 results.


• Basic Resources is found at the foot of the pile, with downside today driven by broadly lower metals prices; Glencore (-2%).

Others: FTSE 100 +0.2%, CAC 40 +1%, AEX +1%

• The FTSE 100 is modestly firmer today, but not performing quite as well as its peers. A heavy earnings slate today, so to hone in on the key ones; AstraZeneca (+2%, Beats on rev. & adj. EPS, affirms guidance and lifts interim dividend), Barclays (-0.5%, strong metrics and initiated share GBP 1bln buyback), Greggs (-3%, H1 PBT was weak amid ongoing macro challenges).


• The CAC 40 is one of the best performers in Europe today, largely thanks to post-earnings strength in EssilorLuxottica (+5.9%). The Co. reported very strong H1 metrics and highlighted that its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses sales doubled. Elsewhere, Air Liquide (+2.1%) benefits after reporting in-line figures and confirmed its guidance; Orange (+2%) gains after reporting mixed results, but did raise its 2025 outlook, which has boosted sentiment.

US Equity Futures: ES +0.2%, NQ +0.4%, RTY +0.3%

• Futures are modestly firmer across the board, with some modest outperformance in the NQ after again closing at record highs in the prior session.


• The US Day sees the release of June’s advance goods trade balance data, where the deficit is expected to widen a touch to USD 98.4bln (from 96.4bln). The Conference Board’s gauge of consumer confidence is expected to improve to 95.8 in July from 93.0 in June. On the labour market front, June’s JOLTS job openings are seen falling a touch to 7.55mln from 7.77mln; there will also be attention on the underlying metrics; last time out, the quits rate rose to 2.1% from 2.0%, while the vacancy rate rose to 4.6% from 4.4%. The Atlanta Fed will update its GDPNow forecasting model; it is currently tracking Q2 growth of 2.4%.


• Notable US corporate reports due today include: UNH, UPS, MRK, RCL, CARR, JCI, AMT, PYPL, PG, BA, ECL, NSC, MDLZ, BKNG, SBUX, V, RSG, JBLU, SPOT.

29 Jul 2025 - 10:15- EquitiesEU Research- Source: Newsquawk