Newsquawk Daily European Equity Opening News - 24th January 2025

ASIA

APAC stocks were mostly higher following the continued gains on Wall St and constructive comments from US President Trump related to China tariffs but with the upside capped as the attention turned to the BoJ which delivered a widely expected rate hike. ASX 200 edged mild gains with sentiment helped by the encouraging tariff-related rhetoric by Trump on China. Nikkei 225 initially extended above the 40,000 level but then pared its advances after the BoJ hiked rates by 25bps to 0.50% and raised its Core CPI forecasts across the board which disappointed those that were hoping for an overtly dovish hike. Hang Seng and Shanghai Comp were encouraged by the pre-taped comments from US President Trump that conversations with Chinese President Xi went fine and that he would rather not have to use tariffs over China, although risk sentiment in the mainland was somewhat tempered after the PBoC's MLF operation resulted in a CNY 795bln drain.

BoJ - BoJ hikes rates by 25bps to 0.50%, as expected via 8-1 vote with Nakamura the dissenter, while it reiterates will continue to raise rates if economy and prices move in line with forecasts. (Newswires)

Kia Corp (000270 KS) - Q4 oper. profit rose 10.2% Y/Y, while it targets 2025 oper. profit at KRW 12.4tln and 2025 rev. at KRW 112tln

LG Energy Solution (373220 KS) - Reports Q4 (KRW) net loss 411bln, confirms oper. loss 226bln and rev. 6.45tln. (Newswires)

EUROPEAN CLOSES

CLOSES: DAX: +0.77% at 21,418, FTSE 100: +0.23% at 8,565, CAC 40: +0.70% at 7,893, Euro Stoxx 50: +0.21% at 5,217, AEX: -0.58% at 909, IBEX 35: +0.99% at 12,001, FTSE MIB: +0.72% at 36,113, SMI: +0.61% at 12,262, PSI: +0.23% at 6,520.

SECTORS: Financials 1.19%, Industrials 0.93%, Consumer Stpl 0.43%, Consumer Disc 0.35%, Utilities 0.34%, Healthcare 0.28%, Telecoms 0.02%, Materials -0.07%, Energy -0.26%, IT -1.57%

FTSE 100

AstraZeneca (AZN LN) - Co. plans a CAD 820mln investment in Canada to advance a growing global hub. (Newswires)

Barclays (BARC LN) - Co. to cut CEO's fixed pay package and cap the maximum pay package at GBP 14.3mln, via Sky News. (Sky News)

Rio Tinto (RIO LN) - Co. updated that Q1 iron ore shipments and rail and port operations were impacted by Tropical Cyclone Sean but 2025 guidance is unchanged, while it noted EII dumper could be offline for 3-4 weeks. (Newswires)

UK GfK - UK GfK Consumer Confidence (Jan) -22.0 vs. Exp. -18.0 (Prev. -17.0); Consumer Insights Director at NIQ GfK says "These figures underline that consumers are losing confidence in the UK's economic prospects". (Newswires)

OTHER UK COMPANIES

BROKER MOVES

Anglo American (AAL LN) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citi

Greggs (GRG LN) upgraded to Buy from Hold at HSBC

Intertek (ITRK LN) upgraded to Overweight from Underweight at Barclays

DAX

MTU Aero (MTX GY) - Katja Garcia to succeed Peter Kameristch as CFO. (Newswires)

OTHER GERMAN COMPANIES

BROKER MOVES

Carl Zeiss Meditec (AFX GY) upgraded to Buy from Hold at HSBC

CAC

OTHER FRENCH COMPANIES

BROKER MOVES

PAN EUROPE

BMPS (BMPS IM) - Co. is launching a voluntary public exchange offer for Mediobanca (MB IM) for a total consideration of EUR 13.3bln (equivalent to EUR 15.99/shr). New group to accelerate usage of EUR 2.9bln DTA over six years. BMPS says double-digit accretion on EPS; offer to be completed by Q3'25. (Newswires)

China-exposed stocks - US President Trump says conversation with China's Xi went fine and responded he can when asked if he can make a deal with China, while he added would rather not have to use tariffs over China in pre-taped interview with Fox News. (Fox News)

Crypto - US President Trump says he's signing order related to AI and crypto, according to Bloomberg. Signing order related to establishing a commission on science and technology. Signing order related to declassification of files related to JFK assassination and Robert Kennedy and MLK. Order on crypto is to develop national digital asset stockpile; to form internal working group on crypto. (Bloomberg)

Signify (LIGHT NA) - Q4 (EUR): Net Income 119mln (exp. 103mln), Revenue 1.66bln (prev. 1.73bln Y/Y), Launches EUR 150mln share buyback and will increase dividend to EUR 1.56/shr in 2025. Guides initial FY25 revenue "low single digit comparable growth". Proposes to reappoint Gerard Van De Aast to the supervisory board; CEO Rondolat to step down after AGM in 2025. (Newswires)

Chip names - Texas Instruments beat on headline metrics, but Q1 guidance missed expectations (details below). TXN shares -4.5% after-hours

BROKER MOVES

SMI

OTHER SWISS COMPANIES

Avolta (AVOL SW) - Launched share buyback program of up to CHF 200mln on Jan 27, 2025. (Newswires)

Givaudan (GIVN SW) - FY (CHF): Net Income 1.09bln (exp. 1.14bln), Revenue 7.4bln (exp. 7.38bln). Says highly likely to exceed the upper end of avg. 5yr sales growth target of 4-5% on LFL basis for the period 2021-25. (Newswires)

BROKER MOVES

SCANDINAVIA

Ericsson (ERICB SS) - Q4 (SEK): Net Income 4.88bln (prev. 3.41bln Y/Y), EBIT 7.96bln (exp. 5.23bln, prev. 5.85bln Y/Y), Revenue 72.9bln (prev. 71.9bln Y/Y). Organic Revenue +2% Y/Y, Adj. Gross Margin 46.3% (prev. 41.1% Y/Y), Adj. EBIT Margin 11.8% (prev. 9.3% Y/Y). Proposes dividend of SEK 2.85/shr (exp. 2.7/shr). Sees further signs that overall RAN market is now stabilising. Q1'25 forecasts: On Networks; adj. gross margin in Q1 is expected to be in the range of 47-49%. On Cloud Software, sales growth exp. to be broadly similar to 3yr average seasonality. Restructuring charges in 2025 exp. to remain at elevated levels. (Newswires)

BROKER MOVES

US

CLOSES: SPX +0.53% at 6,119, NDX +0.22% at 21,901, DJIA +0.92% at 44,565, RUT +0.47% at 2,315

SECTORS: Technology +0.12%, Consumer Discretionary +0.4%, Consumer Staples +0.41%, Energy +0.45%, Utilities +0.47%, Materials +0.51%, Financials +0.6%, Communication Services +0.81%, Real Estate +0.82%, Industrials +0.96%, Health +1.35%.

Boeing (BA) - Says expects to recognise impacts from IAM work stoppage and defence charges, adds Commercial Airplanes to recognise USD 1.1bln pre-tax charges and sees Q4 loss/shr USD 5.46 (exp. loss/shr 1.84), rev. USD 15.2bln (exp. 16.5bln). Says: Still anticipates first delivery of 777-9 in 2026. Defense, Space & Security expects Q4 revenue of USD 5.4bln.

Texas Instruments Inc (TXN) - Q4 2024 (USD): EPS 1.30 (exp. 1.20), Revenue 4.0bln (exp. 3.87bln). Analog revenue 3.17bln (exp. 3.07bln). Embedded processing revenue 613mln (exp. 620.6mln). Other revenue 220mln (exp. 233mln). Operating profit 1.38bln (exp. 1.3bln). Capital expenditure 1.19bln (exp. 1.3bln). Free cash flow 806mln (exp. 613.7mln). R&D expenses 491mln (exp. 498.2mln). Cash and cash equivalents 3.20bln (exp. 2.28bln). Q1 guidance: EPS 0.94 to 1.16 (exp. 1.17). Revenue 3.74bln to 4.06bln (exp. 3.88bln). Shares -4.5% after-hours

24 Jan 2025 - 06:59- Research Sheet- Source: Newsquawk