EUROPEAN EQUITIES UPDATE: Stocks opened indifferent but has slowly climbed higher, SAN FP -4% reports mixed results

STOXX 600: +0.6%

• European bourses opened with very modest gains, with markets digesting the slew of trade-related updates on Thursday/overnight. In essence, US Officials generally pushed back against the severity of the latest ITC Court ruling, suggesting there are other ways to implement tariffs.


• Just to recap some of the key headlines; 1) US appeals court temporarily reinstated US President Trump's tariffs during the appeal and said it needs time to consider filings, 2) Trump admin is looking at a stopgap tariff regime if the court appeal against the tariff block fails, which would allow tariffs of up to 15% for 100 days, via WSJ, 3) US Treasury Secretary Bessent said a couple trade deals are close and that China talks are a bit stalled but believes they will have more talks in a few weeks


• For Europe specifically, Bessent suggested that the EU's deal is in motion. Elsewhere, the FT reported that Germany is eyeing a 10% digital tax on global tech giants like Meta (META) and Google (GOOGL), according to the FT.


• The European docket today has been fairly busy with a few key data releases, but nothing that has materially impacted the complex. The German Retail Sales report was mixed; the headline M/M was much weaker than expected whilst the Y/Y figure printed above expectations – do note that the priors were revised higher. Spanish Inflation metrics printed a little lower than expectations. The German State CPIs were mixed vs the mainland expectation implication – nationwide figure is due in the afternoon.

Sectors: Positive

• European sectors are mostly higher but with no clear theme aside from the day’s underperformer, Basic Resources.


• This is seemingly a factor of the aforementioned trade updates which seems to suggest that the US administration will implement tariffs irrespective of the ITC Court Ruling – as such base metals are broadly in the red.


• Real Estate is found towards the top of the pile, followed closely by Utilities and then Chemicals.

Key stories:

• Sanofi (-4%) falls after it said that Aerify-2 did not meet the primary endpoint; Itepekimab met the primary endpoint in one of two COPD Phase 3 studies. Do note that this drug is being jointly developed with US-listed Regeneron, currently -6% pre-market.


• Volkswagen CEO Blume says they are holding fair and constructive talks with the US on tariffs and they intend to invest further in the US.


• Drax updates that the Bidco cash offer for HEIT has now lapsed.

US Equity Futures: ES -0.2%, NQ -0.1%, RTY -0.4%

• Futures are modestly lower across the board, continuing similar price action seen in the APAC session and as indices pare back some of Thursday’s advances.


• Pre-market movers include; Synopsys (-1%, suspends sales and services in China), Dell (+2%, rose its FY26 EPS outlook driven by strong AI server demand).


• The US Day sees the release of April PCE data, the Fed’s preferred gauge (preview below). Elsewhere, the US will also release the Chicago PMI, advance goods trade stats for April, and the final University of Michigan sentiment data for May (1yr inflation expectations stand at 7.3%, and 5-10yr stand at 4.6%). On the speakers’ docket, remarks are due from the Fed’s Daly (2027), and the Fed’s Goolsbee (2025 voter).

30 May 2025 - 09:55- ForexEU Research- Source: Newswires