Newsquawk Daily European Equity Opening News - 17th February 2025

ASIA

Chinese Tech - Founders of Alibaba (9988 HK), Xiaomi (1810 HK), BYD (1211 HK), Huawei & Unitree attend symposium with Chinese President Xi who also met with CEOs from China Feihe (6186 HK), Meituan (3690 HK), New Hope (000876 CH) & CATL's (300750 CH) founder. Baidu Inc (9888 HK) and ByteDance did not attend meeting with Chinese President Xi, according to sources familiar with the meeting. (Newswires)

Chinese Autos - China January new energy vehicle sales rose 29.4% Y/Y (vs 34% Y/Y in December), according to the industry association. (Newswires)

Tencent (700 HK) - Cloud integrated DeepSeek into four additional products including Tencent Mapping. (Newswires)

Nippon Steel (5401 JT) - US President Trump says he wouldn't mind minority stake by Nippon Steel in US Steel (X) and Nippon is looking at investment including debt in US Steel. (Newswires)

EUROPEAN CLOSES

CLOSES: DAX -0.57% at 22,483, Euro Stoxx 50 -0.17% at 5,491, CAC 40 +0.18% at 8,179, AEX +0.00% at 947, IBEX 35 +0.15% at 12,956, PSI +1.04% at 6,654, SMI -1.01% at 12,819, FTSE 100 -0.37% at 8,732, FTSE MIB +0.18% at 37,978

SECTORS: Materials 0.74%, Energy 0.65%, Consumer Disc 0.54%, Industrials 0.11%, Financials -0.14%, Utilities -0.18%, Telecoms -0.38%, IT -0.58%, Consumer Stpl -0.63%, Healthcare -1.48%

FTSE 100

Anglo American (AAL LN) – Co. intends to seek shareholder approval for demerger of Anglo American Platinum at AGM on April 30 2025; CEO says "We are on a clear timeline towards demerging Anglo American Platinum... in June"; Primary listing on JSE with an additional listing on LSE. (Newswires)

Aviva (AV/ LN) – Aviva’s India arm hit with a USD 7.5mln fine for a fake invoice scheme, according to Reuters citing an invoice. (Reuters)

BP (BP/ LN) – Co. announces the start of production from the second development of Raven Field offshore Egypt. (Newswires)

GSK (GSK LN) - Penmenvy, GSK’s 5-in-1 meningococcal vaccine, approved by US FDA to help protect against MenABCWY. (GSK)

UK Housing - UK House Price Rightmove YY (Feb) 1.4% (Prev. 1.8%). UK House Price Rightmove MM (Feb) 0.5% (Prev. 1.7%); "New sellers are showing some pricing restraint after a fast start to the year, being mindful of both the high level of seller competition, and in England also of the looming stamp duty deadline and extra costs for some buyers", says Rightmove's Babcock. (Newswires)

UK Taxes - UK Chancellor Reeves leaves door open to raising UK taxes next month, via FT; "the Treasury is refusing to rule out tax rises as part of the package. One aide said Reeves was taking “nothing off the table”. (FT)

UK / US Tariffs - UK Business Secretary Reynolds, speaking to the BBC, said that if the US imposes tariffs on steel and aluminium then the UK could implement tariffs on whiskey, jeans and motorbikes. Reynolds added that no decisions have been taken and he does not believe it would occur, "believe there's a basis for constructive engagement. (BBC)

OTHER UK COMPANIES

Assura (AGR LN) – Co. has received an unsolicited takeover offer from KKR and USS Investment Management; the pair have until 17:00 GMT on 14 March 2025 to declare if they will make an offer or not, via City AM. This Is Money writes that offer is worth more than GBP 1.3bln. (City AM / This Is Money)

BROKER MOVES

Ferrexpo (FXPO LN) upgraded to Buy from Hold at Peel Hunt

DAX

Rheinmetall (RHM GY) - CEO says that calls for Europe to safeguard its own security means Europe will grow more than expect. Co. is considering acquisitions and will invest heavily. To continue investing in US, wants to grow very quickly to reach annual sales of USD 2bln there. No talks with KNDS about consolidation, neither KNDS Germany nor KNDS France. Co. made a non-binding bid for Thyssenkrupp's (TKA GY) TKMS but the sale process stopped. CEO said the co. will continue to grow in the event of a ceasefire in Ukraine. (Newswires) Shares +6.8% in pre-market trade

OTHER GERMAN COMPANIES

BROKER MOVES

CAC

Sanofi (SAN FP) – US approves co’s Aventis US Merilog and Merilog solostar, biosimilars to Novo Nordisk's (NOVOB DC) Novolo. (Newswires)

OTHER FRENCH COMPANIES

La Francaise des Jeux (FDJ FP) – FY (EUR): Revenue 3.06bln (exp. 2.98bln); notes that the impact of Social Security Financing Act is to reduce rev. by around EUR 45mln in FY25, equating to a Full Year impact of nearly EUR 90mln. Co. has begun to take steps to offset the impact. (Newswires)

BROKER MOVES

Hermes (RMS FP) PT raised to EUR 2700 (prev. 2300) at JP Morgan

PAN EUROPE

Agricultural goods - The European Commission will reportedly agree this week to explore greater import limits of foodstuffs, via FT citing sources; soybeans grown in the US with pesticides banned in the EU could be an early target. Plan will be part of the Vision for Agriculture roadmap, which reportedly references a requirement to stick to international rules. (FT)

Defence Names - US Defense Secretary Hegseth set to seek 8% spending shift at Pentagon as DOGE looms. Elsewhere, President Trump has expressed openness to allowing European countries to purchase US-made weapons for Ukraine. The move could provide Ukraine with American arms even as the US scales back its military support, aligning with Trump's efforts to negotiate an end to the ongoing war, Bloomberg reports. Elsewhere, German Chancellor-frontrunner Merz said he is "open" to more defence spending and would consider a "debate on resources". (Newswires)

Energy Names - US President Trump signs executive order creating the energy dominance council; signs LNG export license. US has more energy than any other country; signs a commonwealth LNG export license. Congress will look at California tailpipe waiver. (Newswires)

Poste Italiane (PST IM) / Telecom Italia (TIT IM) – Poste Italiane acquired a 9.81% stake in Telecom Italia; sells 3.78% stake in Nexi (NEXI IM). (Newswires)

Soros 13-F – Cuts stake in Sanofi (SAN FP) by 50%; raises stake in AstraZeneca (AZN LN) by 19%. (Newswires)

Telefonica (TEF SM) – Telefonica’s Peru unit will file for bankruptcy protection. (Newswires)

BROKER MOVES

Kingspan (KGP ID) upgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JP Morgan

SMI

OTHER SWISS COMPANIES

BROKER MOVES

SCANDINAVIA

Bavarian Nordic (BAVAB DC) - Bavarian Nordic receives U.S. FDA approval of Chikungunya vaccine for persons aged 12 and older. On track for commercial launch in the U.S. in the first half of 2025. (Bavarian Nordic)

Ratos (RATB SS) – Q4 (SEK): EBIT 112mln (exp. 335mln). Proposes a dividend FY24 of SEK 1.35 (prev. 1.25 Y/Y). (Newswires)

Nokia (NOKIA FH) - Co. set to gain unconditional EU antitrust approval for its USD 2.3bln acquisition of Infinera (INFN), according to Reuters source

BROKER MOVES

Saab (SAABB SS) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Citi

US

CLOSES: SPX -0.01% at 6,115, NDX +0.38% at 22,115, DJI -0.37% at 44,545, RUT -0.10% at 2,280.

SECTORS: Technology +0.60%, Communication Services +0.41%, Financials +0.14%, Energy +0.13%, Consumer Discretionary -0.27%, Industrials -0.29%, Materials -0.33%, Real Estate -0.44%, Utilities -0.51%, Health -1.11%, Consumer Staples -1.16%

Broadcom (AVGO) and TSMC (2330 TT) - Eye possible Intel (INTC) deals that would split the latter with Broadcom interested in Intel’s chip-design business and TSMC eyeing the Co.’s factories, according to WSJ. (WSJ)

Dell (DELL) - Co. nears deal to sell USD 5bln in AI servers to Musk's xAI, according to Bloomberg; servers are to include Nvidia (NVDA) Blackwell GB200 chips. (Newswires)

TSMC (TSM)- Co. said to have been receptive to Intel (INTC) factory deal, according to Bloomberg. (Bloomberg)

OpenAI - OpenAI Chair Bret Taylor Friday said the company was not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Elon Musk's latest attempt to "disrupt his competition." Taylor added that "any potential reorganisation of OpenAI will strengthen our nonprofit and its mission to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity."

17 Feb 2025 - 06:53- Geopolitical- Source: Newsquawk