EUROPEAN EQUITY UPDATE: Stocks climb in mundane pre-Christmas trade

Analysis details (09:30)

In what has been a session devoid of incremental macro developments, European equities (Eurostoxx 50 +0.7%) have been able to extend on opening gains. Stocks in the region have been able to shrug off the mostly negative APAC lead which saw marginal underperformance in the Nikkei 225 (-0.6%) following yesterday’s BoJ-induced sell-off. Elsewhere, the COVID situation in China remained in focus with reports suggesting that China will no longer take measures to isolate people from overseas. Stateside, US futures are posting similar gains to their European counterparts (ES +0.6%, NQ +0.6%, RTY +0.6%) following a mixed/modestly firmer performance on Wall Street yesterday. Today’s session sees the release of US MBA Mortgage Applications and Existing Home Sales with the Fed speaker slate empty until next year. Sectors in Europe are higher across the board with outperformance in Retail names as the likes of Puma (+9.2%), Adidas (+8.8%) and JD Sports (+6.8%) benefit from the read-across from Nike’s (+13.6% pre-market) Q3 results which saw the Co. beat on both top and bottom lines. Elsewhere, the Real Estate sector is also notably firmer on the session following a tough few days for the industry. To the downside, but still in positive territory, Insurance, Banking and Basic Resource names lag peers. In term of individual updates, Credit Suisse’s (+1.4%) Swiss Banking Head has stated that client withdrawals have stabilised and reversed in some cases, whilst reports in Italian press notes that Deutsche Lufthansa (+0.7%) would be willing to take a minority stake of between 40-49% in ITA Airways. Uniper (+3.6%) is firmer on the session after the EU Commission granted approval for the German recapitalisation plan, whilst MorphoSys (-3.1%) is lower following news that its CFO is to leave in March.

21 Dec 2022 - 09:30- Research Sheet- Source: Newsquawk