Newsquawk Daily European Equity Opening News - 19th March 2025

ASIA

APAC stocks traded mixed as the region lacked firm conviction following the negative handover from Wall St and as participants braced for central bank announcements including the BoJ decision which lacked any major fireworks. ASX 200 was subdued for most of the session and finished lower in the absence of any fresh bullish catalysts. Nikkei 225 initially benefitted from recent currency weakness which helped the index shrug off disappointing machinery orders and weaker-than-expected trade data to briefly reclaim the 38,000 level. However, the index then gradually pared its gains following the lack of surprises from the BoJ's unsurprising decision to maintain rates at 0.50%. Hang Seng and Shanghai Comp were choppy with participants cautious as they digested recent earnings releases and with tech stocks contained heading into Tencent's results due later today.

EUROPEAN CLOSES

CLOSES: Euro Stoxx 50 +0.64% at 5,481, DAX +1.03% at 23,393, CAC 40 +0.50% at 8,115, AEX +0.00% at 914, IBEX 35 +1.58% at 13,355, SMI -0.01% at 13,057, PSI +1.07% at 6,926, FTSE 100 +0.29% at 8,705, FTSE MIB +1.31% at 39,534.

SECTORS: Financials 1.48%, Energy 0.86%, Industrials 0.84%, IT 0.42%, Materials 0.22%, Utilities 0.17%, Consumer Disc 0.15%, Healthcare 0.06%, Telecoms -0.04%, Consumer Stpl -0.37%.

FTSE 100

Haleon (HLN LN) - Pfizer (PFE) is to fully dispose its 7.3% stake in Haleon. Haleon intends to buy back shares for USD 220mln. (Newswires)

Hargreaves Lansdown (HL LN) - CFO Stirling to step down. (Newswires)

Rio Tinto (RIO LN) - Rio Tinto has reaffirmed its support for its dual-listed structure and urged shareholders to reject hedge fund Palliser Capital’s proposal to unify its listings in Australia. The miner argues unification would destroy value, while Australian shareholders oppose the move. Rio’s shareholder meetings are scheduled for April 3rd in London, and May 1st in Perth. (Newswires)

OTHER UK COMPANIES

S4 Capital (SFOR LN) - Monks, the global, purely digital, data-driven, unitary operating brand of S4 Capital plc, announced collaboration with NVIDIA (NVDA) to launch an Agentic AI Advisory Group and the Monks Foundry. (PR Newswire)

BROKER MOVES

DAX

Vonovia (VNA GY) - FY (EUR): Concludes the period at the upper-end of guidance and returns to growth. FY25 Guidance: adj. EBIDA 2.7-2.8bln (exp. 2.6bln). (Newswires)

OTHER GERMAN COMPANIES

Suedzucker (SZU GY) - FY (EUR): Revenue 9.7bln (exp. 9.75bln), EBITDA 715mln (exp. 573mln), Dividend of 0.20/shr (exp. 0.213/shr), Operating Profit 340mln (exp. 234mln). (Newswires) Indicated -3.7% post-earnings

Traton (8TRA GY) - Volkswagen (VOW3 GY) commenced an accelerated bookbuild in Traton shares, to sell 11mln shares. Remain a committed shareholder. (Newswires)

BROKER MOVES

CAC

Dassault Systemes (DSY FP) - Invests in Click Therapeutics. (Newswires)

Vinci (DG FP) - February: Passenger traffic +4.2% Y/Y, Autoroutes traffic 2%. (Newswires)

OTHER FRENCH COMPANIES

BROKER MOVES

Schneider Electric (SU FP) upgraded to Outperform from Underperform at RBC

PAN EUROPE

Defence/Energy Names - UK Foreign Secretary said the EU and UK are to accelerate shipments of arms to Ukraine ahead of a potential full ceasefire, according to Bloomberg. Elsewhere, US President Trump said he and Russian President Putin agreed to an immediate ceasefire on all energy and infrastructure. (Newswires)

De Nora (DNR IM) - FY (EUR): adj. Net 88mln (exp. 82mln), Dividend 0.104/shr (exp. 0.10/shr). FY25 Guidance: low single-digit core revenue growth. (Newswires)

Pharma. Names - The Trump administration is considering significant cuts to federal funding for domestic HIV prevention, with plans potentially being announced soon, WSJ reports. However, the proposal has not been finalised and could be adjusted. (WSJ)

BROKER MOVES

SMI

OTHER SWISS COMPANIES

BROKER MOVES

SCANDINAVIA

BROKER MOVES

US

CLOSES: SPX -1.07% at 5,614, NDX -1.66% at 19,483, DJI -0.62% at 41,581, RUT -0.89% at 2,050

SECTORS: Communication Services -2.14%, Consumer Discretionary -1.90%, Technology -1.65%, Consumer Staples -1.30%, Industrials -0.77%, Utilities -0.66%, Real Estate -0.64%, Financials -0.13%, Materials -0.09%, Health +0.12%, Energy +0.22%

NVIDIA (NVDA) GTC: CEO Huang said the top four hyperscalers bought 1.3mln hopper chips in 2024, he also said that "comparing the peak year of Hopper...and the first week of Blackwell...you can kind of see that, in fact, AI is going through an inflection point". Huang confirmed the Blackwell Ultra Chip will be released in H2 25, and the Blackwell Ultra AI factory platform paves the way for an age of AI reasoning. Huang said the Vera Rubin Chip will be announced in H2 '26, and will release Vera Rubin Ultra in H2 '27. Also announced co-packaged optics networking chip, and the next-generation of Nvidia chip will be named Feynman, arriving in 2028. Also announced a family of open reasoning AI models for developers and enterprises to build agentic AI platforms, and announced Isaac Groot N1 - the world's first humanoid robot foundation model. On Blackwell, said it is in full production and the ramp is incredible.

19 Mar 2025 - 06:40- MetalsResearch Sheet- Source: Newsquawk