Newsquawk Daily European Equity Opening News

4th August 2021

The Daily European Equity Opening News is uploaded at 0700BST/0200EDT recapping all of the overnight equity news.

From 0700BST/0200EDT all equity news will be covered in real-time over the audio and headline feed and the full audio rundown will be at 0715BST/0215EDT.

There will be an additional audio rundown at 0750BST/0250EDT recapping any company news which has hit the wires since 0715BST/0215EDT ahead of the European equity open

European equity coverage will only cover companies in the STOXX 600 or companies of systemic importance to particular sectors.

ASIA

Asia-Pac equities traded mostly higher after initially overlooking the gains on Wall Street, in which the S&P 500 rose to another record high heading into Friday’s US jobs report. US equity futures overnight resumed trade modestly softer and were caged throughout the session, albeit the ES, NQ, and RTY remained above 4400, 15000, and 2200 respectively. Back to APAC, newsflow remained light overnight, the ASX 200 (+0.5%) pulled back after fleetingly topping 7,500, whilst the Nikkei 225 (-0.3%) experienced early underperformance and briefly dipped below 27,500 as chatter regarding a potential nationwide State of Emergency kept the index subdued. The Hang Seng (+1.5%) and Shanghai Comp (+0.6%) initially conformed to the sluggish trade seen across the region at the time, before a notable beat in the Caixin Services PMI bolstered the two indices – with the constituents in the former also cheering China tempering down its crackdown language. SMIC and Tencent both rose some 4% whilst the Hang Seng Tech Index rebounded over 3%. The KOSPI (+1.3%) also welcomed China’s softened stance. Elsewhere, the Japanese 10yr yield fell to zero for the first time since December.

EUROPEAN CLOSES

CLOSES: EURO STOXX 50 +0.05% at 4,119; FTSE 100 +0.34% at 7,106; DAX -0.05% at 15,562; CAC 40 +0.74% at 6,726; IBEX 35 +0.15% at 8,772; FTSE MIB -0.01% at 25,350; SMI -0.05% at 12,165.

SECTORS: Energy 2.62%, Materials 0.84%, Financials 0.46%, Telecoms 0.41%, Utilities 0.35%, Healthcare 0.32%, Consumer Stpl 0.05%, Industrials -0.09%, IT -0.13%, Consumer Disc -0.23%

FTSE 100

Rolls Royce (RR/ LN) - Co. is leading a consortium that has secured at least the GBP 210mln to trigger a equal amount of taxpayer funding for the creation of mini nuclear reactors, making the consortium the first developer to submit designs to regulators. (Telegraph)

Travel Names - Spain is set to remain on the UK's "amber" travel list and avoid being placed on the "red" list amid a significant fall in cases and lack of capacity in hotel rooms for travellers to quarantine in. (Times)

OTHER UK COMPANIES

Frasers (FRAS LN) - Mike Ashley is reportedly to step down from his role at Sports Direct. (Telegraph)

Meggitt (MGGT LN) - UK Defence Committee of MPs says the government should take 'golden shares' in companies critical to national security, including Meggitt. (Telegraph) Such commentary comes amid the takeover attempt by Parker Hannifin

BROKER MOVES

JUST EAT (JET LN) REINSTATED WITH BUY AT GOLDMAN SACHS

DAX

Daimler (DAI GY) - Australia's ACCC has commenced federal court proceedings against Mercedes-Benz Australia/Pacific, proceedings for allegedly failing to comply with obligations under a compulsory recall of defective and possibly deadly Takata airbags. Seeking decelerations, pecuniary penalties and an order requiring a product recall compliance programme alongside costs. (Newswires)

Deutsche Bank (DBK GY) - Co. filed for mixed shelf bank offering. (Newswires)

Siemens Energy (ENR GY) - Q3 revenue EUR 7.26bln vs exp. EUR 7.28bln, adj. EBITDA EUR 54mln, order backlog of EUR 82.6bln. CEO says they are not satisfied with the performance of Siemens Gamesa (SGRE SM). (Newswires)

OTHER GERMAN COMPANIES

Commerzbank (CBK GY) - Q2 revenue EUR 1.86bln vs exp. EUR 1.95bln, operating profit EUR 32mln vs exp. EUR 120mln, CET1 ratio 13.4% vs exp. 13.24%. FY21 revenue should slightly exceed prior year given the strong H1 result; expects a positive operating result and now anticipates a risk result sub EUR 1bln, on current observations. (Newswires)

Hugo Boss (BOSS GY) - Q2 sales EUR 629mln vs exp. EUR 594mln, EBIT EUR 42mln vs exp. EUR 19mln; sales remain just 4% sub Q2-2019 levels. Sales breakdown: Europe EUR 385mln, +130%; Americas EUR 123mln, +416%; APAC +51%. FY21 outlook: currency adj. sales to increase by 30-35%, EBIT EUR 125-175mln vs exp. EUR 167mln. (Newswires)

BROKER MOVES

CAC

Thales (HO FP) - Agreed to sell its Railway signalling business to Hitachi (6501 JT), with the deal valued at EUR 1.66bln, will strengthen the balance sheet and provide substantial cash optionality. FY21 outlook: sales EUR 15.8-16.3bln vs exp. EUR 17.8bln. (Newswires)

Ubisoft (UBI FP) - Activision Blizzard rose 6% after-market as earnings beat on the top and bottom lines.

OTHER FRENCH COMPANIES

Eurofins (ERF FP) - Completed the acquisition of Bioskin GMBH. (Newswires)

SES (SESG FP) - H1 revenue EUR 875mln vs exp. EUR 868mln, adj. EBITDA EUR 544mln vs exp. EUR 530mln. FY21 guidance: adj. EBITDA EUR 1.08-1.1bln vs prev. guided EUR 1.06-1.1bln; on track to attain this result. (Newswires)

BROKER MOVES

PAN EUROPE

Poste Italiane (PST IM) - Q2 revenue EUR 2.8bln vs exp. EUR 2.67bln, EBIT EUR 429mln vs exp. EUR 367mln, net profit EUR 236mln, +36.4% YY. (Newswires)

Utility Names - Spain has called on the EU to back measures to limit rising electricity prices. (FT)

Voestalpine (VOE AV) - Q1 revenue EUR 3.5bln vs exp. EUR 3.6bln, EBITDA EUR 540mln vs exp. EUR 495mln, profit before tax EUR 319mln vs exp. EUR 265mln. FY EBITDA anticipated between EUR 1.9-2.2bln vs exp. EUR 1.96bln. (Newswires)

BROKER MOVES

SMI

Roche (ROG SW) - SoftBank has built a USD 5bln stake in the Co., according to sources. (Newswires)

OTHER SWISS COMPANIES

BROKER MOVES

SCANDINAVIA

BROKER MOVES

US

Apple (AAPL) is tapping more suppliers in China for key roles in producing the iPhone 13 production. (Nikkei)

Boeing (BA) and NASA will not proceed with Wednesday's launch of Starliner Orbital Flight Test-2 due to an issue - additional time is needed to complete the assessment. (Newswires) Boeing holds a 4.3% weighting in the Dow

US DoJ is reportedly mulling a lawsuit to block UnitedHealth's (UNH) USD 8bln Change Healthcare (CHNG) acquisition. (The Information) UnitedHealth is the largest-weighted Dow stock with a 7.9% weighting

Nvidia's (NVDA) USD 40bln acquisition of Arm Holdings from Softbank (SFTBY) is seeing UK regulators propose a deeper review into the deal and is considering blocking it over security; could approve with certain conditions. (Newswires)

CLOSES: SPX +0.85% at 4,424, NDX +0.65% at 15,061, DJIA +0.80% at 35,117, RUT +0.13% at 2,221.

SECTORS: ENERGY +1.83%, HEALTH +1.41%, INDUSTRIALS +1.38%, FINANCIALS +1.13%, MATERIALS +1.01%, CONSUMER DISCRETIONARY +0.77%, TECHNOLOGY +0.69%, UTILITIES +0.61%, CONSUMER STAPLES +0.49%, REAL ESTATE +0.44%, COMMUNICATION SERVICES -0.19%.

04 Aug 2021 - 06:50- Research Sheet- Source: Newsquawk