Newsquawk Daily European Equity Opening News - 22nd April 2025

ASIA

APAC stocks traded mixed with most indices rangebound despite the sell-off on Wall St where stocks and the dollar were pressured after President Trump renewed his criticism against Fed Chair Powell. ASX 200 was little changed as strength in mining stocks and gold producers were offset by losses in tech, energy and healthcare, while price action was also hampered by the absence of any key data. Nikkei 225 struggled for direction and swung between gains and losses in relatively contained parameters amid a choppy currency and slightly higher Japanese yields. Hang Seng and Shanghai Comp conformed to the mixed picture for most of the session with the Hong Kong benchmark initially pressured on return from the Easter weekend, while the mainland was kept afloat amid earnings and positive EV-related updates.

Chinese Autos - China Passenger Car Association says China's automobile exports in March rose 16% Y/Y to 570k units, while Q1 China automobile exports rose by 16% Y/Y to 1.54mln units. (Newswires)

Chinese LPR - Chinese Loan Prime Rate 5Y (Apr) 3.60% vs. Exp. 3.60% (Prev. 3.60%); Loan Prime Rate 1Y (Apr) 3.10% vs. Exp. 3.10% (Prev. 3.10%). (Newswires)

EUROPEAN CLOSES

CLOSES: DAX: -0.53% at 21,203, FTSE 100: -0.04% at 8,272, CAC 40: -0.60% at 7,286, Euro Stoxx 50: -0.58% at 4,938, AEX: -0.16% at 852, IBEX 35: -0.17% at 12,914, FTSE MIB: -0.28% at 35,967, SMI: +0.73% at 11,647, PSI: -0.15% at 6,736 Thursday's close

SECTORS: Consumer Stpl 0.59%, Energy 0.56%, Utilities 0.49%, Telecoms 0.03%, Consumer Disc -0.08%, Financials -0.17%, Industrials -0.26%, Materials -0.31%, Healthcare -0.47%, IT -1.69%

FTSE 100

Antofagasta (ANTO LN) - Elliott Investment has built a GBP 79mln short position against Antofagasta, which is equivalent to 0.52% of its share capital. (The Times)

AstraZeneca (AZN LN) - Enhertu plus pertuzumab demonstrated highly statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in progression-free survival vs. THP as 1st-line therapy for patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer. (Newswires)

GSK (GSK LN) - UK approves combination therapies of GSK's blood cancer drug Blenrep. (Newswires)

Shell (SHEL LN) - Co. is to complete a survey at Venezuela gas field as its license wind-down approaches. (Newswires)

Unilever (ULVR LN) - Reuters writes that the Co. is looking to halt funding for Ben & Jerry's Foundation, according to sources close to the matter. (Reuters)

OTHER UK COMPANIES

Ferrexpo (FXPO LN) - Co. hit with fresh suspension of VAT refunds in Ukraine. Cost-cutting measures are ongoing to preserve liquidity, impacting workforce, mining and Capex. (Newswires)

Hargreaves Lansdown (HL/ LN) - Co-founder Peter Hargreaves has made a surprise return to the Co., and has reportedly nominated his son Robert to become a board observer. (FT)

BROKER MOVES

DAX

DHL (DHL GY) - US Customs and Border Protection confirmed USD 800 de minimis duty-free exemption is to be voided for China and Hong Kong exports into the US from 00:01 EDT on May 2nd. It was also reported that the DHL unit suspended B2C shipments to the US with a value of over USD 800 due to increased customs clearance times. (Newswires)

Daimler Truck (DTG GY) / Toyota (7203 JT) - Cos near merger of truck units and eyeing Tokyo listing, according to Nikkei Asia. (Nikkei Asia)

OTHER GERMAN COMPANIES

BROKER MOVES

CAC

Airbus (AIR FP) - Delta Airlines (DAL) and Airbus A330 suffered an engine fire on tarmac at Orlando airport, forcing passengers to evacuate. (Newswires)

L'Oreal (OR FP) - Q1 2025 (EUR): Sales 11.73bln (exp. 11.48bln), LFL sales +3.5% (exp. +1.26%) Since start of the year, the US was more challenging than anticipated, while China was slightly better than expected. Priorities are to drive growth and manage our P&L to offset impact of tariff hikes, with the benefit of an already very healthy gross margin. Expects global beauty market to grow even amidst the current economic and geopolitical tensions. Expects to achieve another year of growth in sales and profit. Co. says it is encouraging Walmart (WMT) to focus more on beauty; it is one of the strongest partners in North America. Says had built some inventory for several brands in US ahead of tariffs, impact will mainly come in second half; could compensate US tariffs with price hikes. Makeup, whether in mass or luxury, was category most below in its expectations. China was overall flattish, an improvement from Q4. CEO sees no real hard facts to lead to change in forecast for global cosmetics market growth of 4-4.5%; sees market more on lower end of that prediction. (Newswires)

Orange (ORA FP) - Files application; Will no longer file financial statements in Canada if application is successful. (Newswires)

Sanofi (SAN FP) - Dupixent approved in the US as the first new targeted therapy in over a decade for chronic spontaneous urticaria. (Sanofi)

OTHER FRENCH COMPANIES

Bollore (BOL FP) - Market Regulator AMF deems buyout offers for some of its units as non-compliant. Co. does not intend to challenge. (Newswires)

BROKER MOVES

Pernod Ricard (RI FP) upgraded to Equal Weight from Underweight at Barclays

PAN EUROPE

Russia/Ukraine - Russian President Putin declared an Easter ceasefire and the Kremlin said the Russian side will halt all hostilities from 18:00 on April 19th to 00:00 on April 21st, while Putin said Russia has always been ready for negotiations and welcomed the desire of the US, China and other countries for a fair settlement on Ukraine. However, it was also reported that both Russia and Ukraine accused each other of breaking the one-day ceasefire and a Kremlin spokesperson said Russian President Putin had not ordered to extend the Easter ceasefire. (Newswires)

Trade - Japanese negotiators are reportedly complaining that the problem with the trade negotiations with the White House is that the US keeps changing its ask in terms of what exactly it wants, via FBN's Gasparino citing a Financial CEO. US President Trump said on Friday that the US is having nice conversations with China. China’s Foreign Minister said China will take necessary measures to defend lawful rights and interests in regard to US port fees on China-built ships, while it urged the US to respect the facts and multilateral rules and immediately stop ‘wrongful practices’. EU reportedly weighs export restrictions on US if trade negotiations fail, according to Bloomberg. US President Trump says he is very confident on trade deal with EU; moving along on trade very well; we will make a very good deal with China. (Newswires)

Banco BPM (BAMI IM) - S&P upgrades outlook to "positive" from "stable". (Newswires)

BPER (BPE IM) - Shareholders meeting gives Board mandate to execute a capital hike up to EUR 981mln to support bid for Pop Sondrio. (Newswires)

Finecobank (FBK IM) - S&P upgrades long-term rating to "BBB+" from "BBB" with stable outlook. (Newswires)

Raiffeisen Bank (RBI AV) - Spokesperson says sale process of Russia's unit is not halted. Earlier FT sources suggested that the sale of its Russian unit had been halted. (Newswires)

Stellantis (STLAM IM/STLAP FP) - Co. says will launch localised assembly project in Malaysia with Leapmotor; initial investment EUR 5mln. (Newswires)

Saipem (SPM IM) - Renews framework agreement with Saudi Aramco for offshore activities until end 2027. (Newswires)

Telecom Names - Bertelsman (BTG4 GY) CEO Rabe said he hopes to revisit plans to merge M6 and TF1, the largest privately owned French broadcasters. Elsewhere, Telenor (TEL NO) said it was exploring acquisitions, while Telefonica (TEF SM) executives said they would be open to options in various markets, FT adds that several other deals are said to be in the feasibility assessment phase. (FT)

UniCredit (UCG IM) - Italy has cleared UniCredit's bid for Banco BPM (BAMI IM) but with conditions; these include a faster exit from Russia. UniCredit says it is taking time to assess the impact. (Newswires)

BROKER MOVES

Tenaris (TEN IT) initiated with Outperform at BNP Paribas

SMI

Roche (ROG SW) - Co. is to invest USD 50bln in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics in the US over the next five years; exp. to create more than 12k jobs. (Newswires)

UBS (UBSG SW) - Co. will sell its India wealth business to 360 One, in a deal valued at around USD 36mln. (Newswires)

OTHER SWISS COMPANIES

Helvetia (HELN SW) - Co. and Baloise (BALN SW) to join forces and create the second largest insurance group in Switzerland; 1.0119 Helvetia shares for each Baloise share. Anticipated closing in Q4'25. Total integration costs of approx. CHF 500-600mln in coming years are expected, most of which are foreseen to be incurred by 2028. (Newswires)

BROKER MOVES

SCANDINAVIA

Biotage (BIOT SS) - KKR offers to buy the Co. for SEK 145/shr in cash. Biotage last closed at SEK 90.55/shr

Novo Nordisk (NOVOB DC) - Co. says it’s submitted obesity pill for FDA approval, via BioPharma Dive. (BioPharma Dive)

Volvo (VOLVB SS) - Co. is to cut up to 800 US jobs amid tariff uncertainty, according to Reuters. (Reuters)

BROKER MOVES

Equinor (EQNR NO) downgraded to Underperform from Sector Perform at RBC

US

CLOSES: SPX -2.38% at 5,157, NDX -2.46% at 17,808, DJI -2.56% at 38,142, RUT -2.06% at 1,842.

SECTORS: Consumer Discretionary -2.86%, Technology -2.72%, Energy -2.53%, Utilities -2.39%, Industrials -2.26%, Communication Services -2.21%, Financials -2.15%, Health -2.13%, Real Estate -2.09%, Materials -1.62%, Consumer Staples -1.34%.

Netflix Inc (NFLX) - Q1 2025 (USD): EPS 6.61 (exp. 5.65), Revenue 10.54bln (exp. 10.48bln) Key Metrics: US & Canada revenue 4.62bln (exp. 4.68bln, +9.3% y/y) EMEA revenue 3.41bln (exp. 3.31bln, +15% y/y) Latin America revenue 1.26bln (exp. 1.26bln, +8.3% y/y) APAC revenue 1.26bln (exp. 1.24bln, +23% y/y) EPS 6.61 (prev. 5.28, exp. 5.68) Operating income 3.35bln (exp. 3bln) Operating margin 31.7% (prev. 28.1%, exp. 28.6%) Cash flow from operations 2.79bln (exp. 2.21bln) Free cash flow 2.66bln (exp. 2.04bln) Q2 Guidance: Revenue 11.04bln (exp. 10.88bln). EPS 7.03 (exp. 6.24). Op. income 3.68bln (exp. 3.28bln). Op. margin 33.3% (exp. 30%). FY Guidance: Still sees revenue 43.5-44.5bln (exp. 44.33bln). Still sees op. margin 29% (exp. 29.2%). Still sees FCF about 8bln (exp. 8.51bln). Revenue tracking above midpoint of 2025 forecast range. 2025 revenue outlook assumes "healthy" member growth, higher subscription pricing and a rough doubling of ad revenue, partially offset by F/X net of hedging.

Tesla (TSLA) will delay the US production of a cheaper Model Y, according to Reuters sources. (Reuters) Shares fell around 6% in the prior session

Semiconductors, Nvidia (NVDA): Huawei plans to begin mass shipments of its advanced AI 910c chip to Chinese customers next month. NVIDIA shares fell 4.5% in the prior session.

22 Apr 2025 - 06:40- Geopolitical- Source: Newsquawk