Latest news with #CorporateEarnings
Zawya
6 hours ago
- Business
- Zawya
Shares slip as investors look to earnings, tariff talks
LONDON - European shares fell on Tuesday, hit by mixed corporate earnings and anxiety over tariff negotiations between the U.S. and its trading partners, while the euro held steady. The Euro STOXX 600 index extended losses during morning trading and was last down 0.6%, with bourses in Germany and France losing 1.1% and 0.8% respectively. Among the big decliners were chemical stocks which shed 2% as Dulux paint maker Akzo Nobel lost 5.4% after lowering its core profit outlook for 2025. Earnings from firms including SAP and UniCredit were also in focus. Investors were also following tariff talks ahead of Washington's August 1 deadline, with the European Union exploring a broader set of possible countermeasures against the U.S. as hopes for an acceptable agreement fade. The euro was steady at $1.1689 after rising 0.5% on Monday, though still away from the near four-year high hit at the start of the month. The single currency is up 13% this year as investors looked for alternatives to U.S. assets bruised by tariff uncertainties. Its performance is closely monitored for its impact on profits in the euro zone's export-reliant economy. "The euro's ability to maintain preference over the dollar amid tariff tensions will depend on the extent of any escalation and whether the EU emerges as a relative loser while other countries secure significant deals with the U.S.," ING analysts wrote in a note to clients. Wall Street futures were marginally down. The benchmark S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed at record highs on Monday. Investors await results this week from Wall Street giants Alphabet and Tesla, as well as European heavyweights LVMH and Roche, as uncertainty over tariffs clouds the outlook. Earlier, Asian share markets drifted lower after scaling a near four-year peak. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan hit its highest since October 2021 but finished down 0.4%. The index is up nearly 16% this year. Japanese markets returned after a holiday on Monday following the weekend's election where the ruling coalition suffered a defeat in upper house elections, although Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba vowed to remain in his post. The yen rallied 1% on Monday, recouping some of the losses from past weeks and was flat at 147.43 per dollar. FED INDEPENDENCE The dollar index, which gauges the unit against six other key currencies, was also flat at 97.849. Rumblings around the Federal Reserve's independence and whether U.S. President Donald Trump will fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell have kept investors on tenterhooks in recent weeks. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday the entire Federal Reserve needed to be examined as an institution and whether it had been successful. The Fed is widely expected to hold rates steady in its July meeting but might lower rates later in the year. Market focus will be squarely on Powell's impending speech on Tuesday for clues about when the Fed might ease policy. Brent crude futures fell 0.9% to $68.56 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude slipped by the same amount to $66.59 per barrel. (Reporting by Tom Wilson in London and Ankur Banerjee in Singapore. Editing by Mark Potter and Bernadette Baum)
CNA
6 hours ago
- Business
- CNA
Shares slip as investors look to earnings, tariff talks
LONDON :European shares fell on Tuesday, hit by mixed corporate earnings and anxiety over tariff negotiations between the U.S. and its trading partners, while the euro held steady. The Euro STOXX 600 index extended losses during morning trading and was last down 0.6 per cent, with bourses in Germany and France losing 1.1 per cent and 0.8 per cent respectively. Among the big decliners were chemical stocks which shed 2 per cent as Dulux paint maker Akzo Nobel lost 5.4 per cent after lowering its core profit outlook for 2025. Earnings from firms including SAP and UniCredit were also in focus. Investors were also following tariff talks ahead of Washington's August 1 deadline, with the European Union exploring a broader set of possible countermeasures against the U.S. as hopes for an acceptable agreement fade. The euro was steady at $1.1689 after rising 0.5 per cent on Monday, though still away from the near four-year high hit at the start of the month. The single currency is up 13 per cent this year as investors looked for alternatives to U.S. assets bruised by tariff uncertainties. Its performance is closely monitored for its impact on profits in the euro zone's export-reliant economy. "The euro's ability to maintain preference over the dollar amid tariff tensions will depend on the extent of any escalation and whether the EU emerges as a relative loser while other countries secure significant deals with the U.S.," ING analysts wrote in a note to clients. Wall Street futures were marginally down. The benchmark S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed at record highs on Monday. [.N] Investors await results this week from Wall Street giants Alphabet and Tesla, as well as European heavyweights LVMH and Roche, as uncertainty over tariffs clouds the outlook. Earlier, Asian share markets drifted lower after scaling a near four-year peak. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan hit its highest since October 2021 but finished down 0.4 per cent. The index is up nearly 16 per cent this year. Japanese markets returned after a holiday on Monday following the weekend's election where the ruling coalition suffered a defeat in upper house elections, although Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba vowed to remain in his post. The yen rallied 1 per cent on Monday, recouping some of the losses from past weeks and was flat at 147.43 per dollar. FED INDEPENDENCE The dollar index, which gauges the unit against six other key currencies, was also flat at 97.849. Rumblings around the Federal Reserve's independence and whether U.S. President Donald Trump will fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell have kept investors on tenterhooks in recent weeks. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday the entire Federal Reserve needed to be examined as an institution and whether it had been successful. The Fed is widely expected to hold rates steady in its July meeting but might lower rates later in the year. Market focus will be squarely on Powell's impending speech on Tuesday for clues about when the Fed might ease policy. Brent crude futures fell 0.9 per cent to $68.56 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude slipped by the same amount to $66.59 per barrel.
Reuters
9 hours ago
- Business
- Reuters
European shares dip as corporate results, trade anxiety weigh
July 22 (Reuters) - European shares edged lower on Tuesday, as market sentiment soured over fading U.S. trade deal prospects, while investors parsed corporate earnings for insights on tariff and currency-related impact. The pan-European STOXX 600 index (.STOXX), opens new tab was down 0.3% at 544.87 points, as of 0820 GMT. Other regional bourses were also trading in the red. EU diplomats said the 27-nation bloc was considering a broader range of counter-measures against Washington, which could target U.S. services or curb access to public tenders in the absence of a deal. The euro's rise, up as much as 9% in the April-June quarter, will be closely monitored for its impact on profits in the bloc's export-reliant economy, as investors brace for a busy earnings season. "When you look at nominal growth and the sales of European companies, we expect fairly modest growth there," said Joost van Leenders, senior investment strategist at Van Lanschot Kempen pointing to the weakness of the dollar and its direct translation effect, leading to lowering of earnings expectations. Chemical stocks (.SX4P), opens new tab led market declines, down 1.5%, with Switzerland's Givaudan (GIVN.S), opens new tab falling 5.8% after missing half-year sales forecast due to a strong Swiss franc. Dulux paint maker Azko Nobel ( opens new tab declined 2.5% after lowering its core profit outlook for 2025. Semiconductor stocks such as Infineon and ASML ( opens new tab fell 3.4% and 2.1%, respectively, after U.S. peer NXP Semiconductor reported weak second-quarter results. Among individual stocks, Sartorius Stedim Biotech ( opens new tab slipped 9.6%, the biggest decliner on the STOXX 600, after the French lab supplies manufacturer reported its half-year results. Swiss chocolate maker Lindt & Spruengli (LISN.S), opens new tab fell nearly 7% despite raising its organic sales growth forecast after an EBIT miss. Britain's Compass Group (CPG.L), opens new tab rose to the top of the index, up 5%, after the food catering firm agreed to buy European premium food services business Vermaat Groep in a 1.5-billion-euro ($1.75 billion) deal including debt. Norwegian aluminium producer Norsk Hydro ( opens new tab added 3% after trimming its full-year spending despite a quarterly profit beat. Energy firm Centrica (CNA.L), opens new tab rose 4.3% after the UK approved the 38-billion-pound ($51 billion) Sizewell C nuclear plant in eastern England. The company holds a 15% stake in the project. Meanwhile, a survey by the European Central Bank signalled on Monday that while euro zone firms remain optimistic about growth prospects, they face profit pressures partly due to trade tensions. Attention will be on SAP ( opens new tab, the region's largest company by market cap, with its results due later in the day. Also on the radar this week are euro zone PMI data and the ECB's rate decision.
Reuters
11 hours ago
- Business
- Reuters
European shares dip as mixed earnings, trade anxiety weigh
July 22 (Reuters) - European shares nudged lower on Tuesday, weighed down by mixed corporate earnings, while market sentiment over a potential U.S. trade deal soured following reports that the bloc was preparing counter-measures. The pan-European STOXX 600 index (.STOXX), opens new tab was down 0.3% at 545.1 points, as of 0714 GMT. European chemicals stocks (.SX4P), opens new tab led sector declines, falling 1.7%, as shares of Akzo Nobel ( opens new tab dropped 4.2% after the Dulux paint maker lowered its core profit outlook for 2025. Sartorius Stedim Biotech ( opens new tab slipped nearly 7%, the biggest percentage decliner in the STOXX 600, after the French lab supplies manufacturer reported its half-year results. Conversely, Compass Group (CPG.L), opens new tab gained 4.5% after the British food catering firm agreed to buy European premium food services business Vermaat Groep for about 1.5 billion euros ($1.75 billion) including debt. In trade, EU diplomats said the 27-nation bloc was considering a broader range of counter-measures against the United States, which could allow the EU to target U.S. services or curb access to public tenders in the absence of a deal. Meanwhile, an ECB survey signalled on Monday that euro zone firms remained optimistic about their growth prospects but were also facing pressure on profits partly due to trade tensions. Investors geared up for a week of corporate updates from Wall Street and European leaders, including results from the region's largest software maker SAP ( opens new tab later in the day, to gauge the impact of trade turmoil on businesses.
Reuters
13 hours ago
- Business
- Reuters
Asian stocks waver as investors look to tariff negotiations, earnings
SINGAPORE, July 22 (Reuters) - Asian share markets drifted lower after scaling a near four-year peak on Tuesday ahead of a slate of corporate earnings, while investors took stock of tariff negotiations between the U.S. and its trading partners. The dithering mood is set to continue in Europe where the focus will be on earnings from firms including SAP ( opens new tab and UniCredit ( opens new tab. EUROSTOXX 50 futures and DAX futures both dipped 0.5%, while FTSE futures eased 0.3%. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS), opens new tab hit its highest level since October 2021 in early Asian hours but was last down 0.4%. The index is up nearly 16% this year. The S&P 500 (.SPX), opens new tab and the Nasdaq (.IXIC), opens new tab notched record-high closes on Monday. The Japanese markets returned to action after a holiday on Monday following the weekend's election where the ruling coalition suffered a defeat in upper house elections, although Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba vowed to remain in his post. Japanese shares (.N225), opens new tab, (.TOPX), opens new tab briefly jumped at the open but reversed course to trade lower by Tuesday afternoon, as the election results were largely priced in and were not as bad as investors had feared. The yen rallied 1% on Monday, recouping some of the losses from past weeks and was last slightly weaker at 147.73 per dollar. Kristina Clifton, an economist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said the weakening of Ishiba's leadership will open the door to more fiscal expansion that is negative for Japanese assets, including the yen. "The bottom line is longer term Japanese government bond yields and JPY can fall if concerns about Japan's fiscal spending deepen." Investor focus has been on tariff negotiations ahead of the August 1 deadline with the European Union exploring a broader set of possible countermeasures against the United States as prospects for an acceptable agreement with Washington fade. The most important deals for the global outlook are with the EU and Japan, CBA's Clifton said. "The USD reaction to the announcement of trade deals with these countries would depend on the details of the deals in our view," Clifton added, noting the dollar could turn down again against the euro and the British pound. The euro was steady at $1.1689, after rising 0.5% in the previous session but still away from the near four-year high it touched at the start of the month. The single currency is up 13% this year as investors look for alternatives to U.S. assets bruised by tariff uncertainties. The dollar index , a measure against six other key currencies, was at 97.905. Investors are awaiting results this week from Wall Street giants Alphabet and Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab, as well as from European heavyweights LVMH ( opens new tab, and Roche (ROG.S), opens new tab, as uncertainty over tariffs clouds the outlook. The rumblings around the Federal Reserve's independence and whether U.S. President Donald Trump will fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell have kept investors on tenterhooks in recent weeks. Trump appeared near the point of trying to fire Powell last week, but backed off with a nod to the market disruption that would likely follow. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday the entire Federal Reserve needed to be examined as an institution and whether it had been successful, further exacerbating concerns about the independence of the U.S. central bank. The Fed is widely expected to hold rates steady in its July meeting but might lower rates later in the year. Market focus will be squarely on Powell's speech later on Tuesday for clues about when the Fed might ease policy. Goldman Sachs strategists expect the Fed to deliver three consecutive 25-basis-point cuts starting in September, "provided inflation expectations remain in check amidst worries about Fed independence." In commodities, Brent crude futures fell nearly 1% to $68.56 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude slipped 1% to $66.51 per barrel.
