Newsquawk Daily European Equity Opening News - 24th May 2023

24th May 2023

ASIA

APAC stocks were mostly lower following the negative lead from Wall St where sentiment was weighed on by the ongoing debt limit impasse with just 9 days left to the X-date and amid US-China frictions after the US House China Select Committee Chair called for retaliation against China’s ban on Micron. ASX 200 declined with the resilience in the commodity-related sectors offset by weakness across the broader market and after the Westpac Leading Index remained depressed. NZX 50 was underpinned after a dovish RBNZ rate hike which signalled the end of its rate increases. Nikkei 225 was pressured after its recent pullback to beneath the 31,000 level despite reports that the government is to consider childcare handouts for those up to 18 years old, while the first positive reading this year in the monthly Reuters Tankan manufacturing survey did little to spur risk appetite. Hang Seng and Shanghai Comp. were lower amid US-China frictions after the White House spoke out against the Micron ban, while a lawmaker called for the Commerce Department to add Changxin Memory Technologies to the entity list and ensure no US export licenses are granted to firms operating in China which are used to backfill Micron.

EUROPEAN CLOSES

CLOSES: Euro Stoxx 50 -0.99% at 4,342, FTSE 100 -0.10% at 7,762, DAX 40 -0.44% at 16,152, CAC 40 -1.33% at 7,378, FTSE MIB -0.50% at 27,174, IBEX 35 -0.41% at 9,267, SMI -0.53% at 11,492.

SECTORS: Energy 1.42%, Telecoms 0.44%, Financials 0.22%, Utilities 0.08%, Consumer Stpl -0.23%, Healthcare -0.63%, Materials -0.76%, IT -1.17%, Industrials -1.24%, Consumer Disc -2.62%

FTSE 100

FTSE Reshuffle - IMI (IMI LN) is indicated to join the FTSE 100 index and Ocado (OCDO LN) is set to leave, according to Bloomberg. (Newswires)

Legal & General (LGEN LN) - Co. purchased USD 250mln of bonds in the largest ever debt-for-nature swap in May; the transaction permitted Ecuador to exchange USD 1.63bln of USD-denominated bonds for a smaller loan at a lower rate, on the condition some funding went to conservation. (FT)

OTHER UK COMPANIES

BROKER MOVES

Deliveroo (ROO LN) upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley

DAX

Siemens (SIE GY) - CEO said the Co. is to defend and expand its market share in China. (FT)

OTHER GERMAN COMPANIES

BROKER MOVES

Brenntag (BNR GY) upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan Chase

CAC

AXA (CS FP) - Co's Venture Partners has announced a EUR 1.5bln fund to invest in European and US tech start-ups, and is reportedly looking at Cos that are expected to IPO within three-to-four years, according to Bloomberg. (Newswires)

Michelin (ML FP) - Co's TBC Corporation is to divest its Retail network and to focus on Wholesale, Distribution and Franchise businesses. The transaction is expected to close in the coming weeks. (globenewswire)

Renault (RNO FP) - Renault Group and Valeo (FR FP) sign a partnership in Software Defined Vehicle development. (globenewswire)

OTHER FRENCH COMPANIES

BROKER MOVES

Air France-KLM (AF FP) upgraded to Market Perform from Underperform at Bernstein

PAN EUROPE

MedioBanca (MB IM) - Co's 2023-26 strategic plan guidelines have been approved. Co. targets Revenue +6%, EPS +15%, and targets cumulative shareholder remuneration up 70%. (MedioBanca)

Tech Names - Chair of US House's China Select Committee says Commerce Dept should add Changxin Memory Technologies (CXMT) to the entity list, and added that Chinese actions against Micron are latest example of economic coercion to intimidate US government from implementing export controls. (Newswires)

BROKER MOVES

Leonardo (LDO IM) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs

SMI

UBS (UBSG SW) - Co. estimates that USD 8bln of cost savings could be achieved compared to estimated separate firm run rate by 2027 from Credit Suisse (CSGN SW) deal and sees the transaction to be accretive to EPS by 2027. Co. is considering all options for the Swiss banking units of the combined group. Currently there is no decision on whether UBS and CS will fully integrate into a single brand in Switzerland or on an international scale, while no decision has been made on whether there will be an additional spin-off of any material Credit Suisse business units. Separately, UBS' Credit Suisse withdraws appeal over AT1 writedown. Credit Suisse said writedown is not applicable to bonuses, according to Swiss court notice. (Newswires)

OTHER SWISS COMPANIES

BROKER MOVES

SCANDINAVIA

BROKER MOVES

US

CLOSES: SPX -1.12% at 4,146, NDX -1.28% at 13,673, DJIA -0.69% at 33,056, RUT -0.43% at 1,788.

SECTORS: Materials -1.54%, Technology -1.5%, Communication -1.48%, Real Estate -1.28%, Industrials -1.23%, Financials -1.22%, Health Care -1.13%, Consumer Discretionary -0.87%, Consumer Staples -0.71%, Utilities -0.34%, Energy +1.04%.

Netflix (NFLX) - Co. has asked customers in the US and 102 other regions to stop sharing accounts outside their households, but also offers users the privilege for an additional fee. Also sending similar emails to members in the UK, Germany, France, Mexico, Brazil, Philippines, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, and Israel. (Netflix)

NVIDIA (NVDA) - Co. said it is integrating NVIDIA AI enterprise software into Microsoft's (MSFT) Azure machine learning; omniverse cloud platform as service now available on Microsoft Azure as private offer for enterprises. (NVIDIA IR)

24 May 2023 - 06:28- Research Sheet- Source: Newsquawk