EUROPEAN EQUITIES UPDATE: Stocks modestly higher, MUV2 GY sinks after trimming guidance

STOXX 600: +0.2%

• European bourses opened mostly modestly firmer and have traded sideways throughout the session.


• Focus overnight has been on US President Trump appointing CEA Chair Miran as a temporary replacement to fill Kugler's seat at the Fed. Additionally, Bloomberg reported that current Fed Governor Waller is the Trump team’s favourite to chair the Fed. Reportedly, advisers are impressed by his willingness to move policy based on forecasting and not just current data. This would be considered a “moderate” option, particularly compared with other options such as NEC Director Hassett.


• On the trade front, US Treasury Secretary Bessent said China tariffs can be on the table at some point and that President Trump is using tariffs as an instrument of foreign policy. As for US-Japan, finally some clarity; the US confirmed that Japan has no stacking on their 15% deal vs reports on Thursday that it was not like the EU-US deal.


• Docket today very quiet, today’s focus will be on BoE’s Pill – who dissented on Thursday’s decision; an explanation for that will be watched out for by markets.

Sectors: Positive

• European sectors hold a very slight positive bias.


• Basic Resources top the pile – nothing specific driving the upside, simply just a case of upside across the underlying metals complex. Autos and then Healthcare complete the top three. Specifically on the latter, the sector has been boosted by upside in GSK, which benefits from a settlement case; key broker moves today include a Novartis upgrade and a Roche downgrade, both at Morgan Stanley.


• The clear underperformer today is Insurance, which has been hit by post-earning losses in Munich Re, where the Co. slashed its Insurance rev. forecast. This comes after some relative outperformance on Thursday, where the likes of Zurich Insurance and Allianz both edged higher after their results.

Movers

• Flutter (-2%) moves lower after reporting a very slight miss on its Q2 metric, but did raise its FY guidance.


• Munich Re (-8%) slumped at the bottom of the DAX 40 after reporting similar metrics to the prior year, but with particular focus on the Co’s decision to trim its 2025 insurance rev. forecast, citing currency developments.


• Ubisoft (+1%) is a little firmer today in tandem with post-earnings strength in US-peer Take-Two Interactive (+5% pre-market). The Co. reported narrower-than-expected loss, higher net bookings and raised guidance.


• GSK (+1%) settled a patent dispute with CureVac, where the Co. will receive USD 370mln upfront.

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

• Futures are very modestly firmer across the board, as price action stabilises a touch from the mixed performance on Thursday.


• The US docket ahead is very quiet. More focus on Fed's Musalem (2025 voter) who will speak on "financial wellbeing in banking". Canada will release July job metrics, where 13.5k jobs are expected to be added (prev. 83k), with the unemployment rate rising one-tenth to 7.0%.

08 Aug 2025 - 10:00- ForexEU Research- Source: Newsquawk