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Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of European equity markets brought to you by Reuters
stocks reporters. You can share your thoughts Joice Alves (joice.alves@thomsonreuters.com) and
Julien Ponthus (julien.ponthus@thomsonreuters.com) in London and Stefano Rebaudo
(stefano.rebaudo@thomsonreuters.com) in Milan.
OPENING SNAPSHOT: A SWIFT TURNAROUND! (0803 GMT)
Everything seemed to be pointing to stocks losing ground at the open this mornings but the
trend swiftly became positive soon after the bell.
The STOXX 600 regained 0.2%, which was much better than what the futures were suggesting
earlier this morning, falling up to 0.8%.
At the time of writing, the bounce-back faded and the pan-European index is back just very
slightly in the red.
While there's no clear trigger for the switch in mood, there is a clear feeling that
European stocks have the upper hand in the global stock market arena and that's helping at the
open.
"The key is that Europe keeps reopenings safely in light of the low levels of
virus transmission resurgence and far more manageable new cases", Stephen Innes, chief
global market strategist at AxiCorp just told us.
"Investors sill have the reopening fever and money to spend, so they may now view EU stocks
a more attractive investment in that regard", he added.
We also asked Michael Hewson at CMC Markets what was his take on the turnaround at the open
and he argued that "some of the concerns about a second wave are premature".
Among individual stocks there's a lot of action around Wirecard which is up...160%! Traders
reporting the shares are rising on a Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung report that private equity
and Worldline may be interested in buying parts of the company.
Another big mover is AMS up close to 7% with the reported EU go-ahead for the Osram deal
boostng the shares.
Speaking of European shares having the upper hand, check out this story:
Investors warm to Europe as Biden lead, virus fears rattle Wall St
Anyhow, here's your opening snapshot:
(Julien Ponthus and Stefano Rebaudo)
*****
ON THE RADAR: AIRBUS, WIRECARD AND BUSINESS SENTIMENT (0645 GMT)
While there's not that much corporate news this morning, traders looking for market action
can turn to Wirecard, which is up 30% in pre-market after the German company said on Saturday it
would proceed with business activities after filing for insolvency.
That, of course, ain't much of a bounce back as the stock has lost about 99% of its value in
less than two months!
Another stock under focus this morning is Airbus, losing some ground after its Chief
Executive said he assumed a 40% drop in production over the next two years.
Traders also see AMS rising as much as 10% at the open after a Reuters exclusive on the
European Union giving its go-ahead to its acquisition of German lighting group Osram.
Talking about M&A, Spain's Iberdrola raised its bid for Australian wind and solar firm
Infigen Energy after Philippine conglomerate Ayala Corp hiked its offer.
Also, International Consolidated Airlines Group is reviewing its planned 1 billion euro
acquisition of Air Europa because of the harsh economic climate caused by COVID-19, the CEO of
IAG-owned Iberia was quoted on Sunday as saying.
In the beaten down euro zone banking sector, a German newspaper reported on Saturday that
the board of Commerzbank's board would likely approve more branch closures and job cuts at an
extraordinary meeting next week.
In Italy, the board of Monte dei Paschi di Siena is expected to meet on Monday to approve a
plan to reduce its burden of bad loans.
Some macro could also spice things up a tad with notably the Euro Zone Economic Sentiment
for June at 0900 GMT:
(Julien Ponthus and Stefano Rebaudo)
*****
MORNING CALL: GRIM VIRUS MILESTONES DENT SENTIMENT (0535 GMT)
There's clearly a risk-off feeling across markets as the week begins with two gloomy
milestones: the death toll from COVID-19 surpassed half a million people and reported cases went
through the 10 million mark.
Asian stocks took losses of about 1% to 2% on average with ongoing fears that the global
pandemic could take a deeper toll on economic growth than expected.
European futures are down between 0.3% to 0.6% and their Wall Street peers are also trading
slightly in the red.
The downbeat sentiment is also showing through oil prices which have slid for a second
straight session.
(Julien Ponthus)
*****
