Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of European equity markets brought to you by Reuters
stocks reporters. You can share your thoughts with Thyagaraju Adinarayan
(thyagaraju.adinarayan@thomsonreuters.com), Joice Alves (joice.alves@thomsonreuters.com) and
Julien Ponthus (julien.ponthus@thomsonreuters.com) in London and Stefano Rebaudo
(stefano.rebaudo@thomsonreuters.com) in Milan.
ON THE RADAR: AVIATION, THYSSENKRUPP, ROCHE (0655 GMT)
European futures are pointing to an open well in the red as U.S.-China tensions over the
coronavirus raised concerns about fresh trade-war hostilities.
Continental European bourses are set to play catch-up this morning having missed out on
Friday's (May Day) sharp declines in UK and US markets. Indeed, futures on the FTSE index show a
smaller fall because London marketplace was open on May Day.
Corporate news piling up this morning is, as usual, mostly about the damage of the
coronavirus outbreak. Things are dire for aviation but state support could be on its way.
Reuters reported Britain hires Morgan Stanley to advise on aviation rescue plan. Rolls-Royce
is planning to slash up to 8,000 jobs as aviation crisis bites further.
Norwegian Air secured support from enough bondholders for a $1.2 billion debt-for-equity
swap, a vital step to survive the coronavirus crisis. In Germany Lufthansa is hopeful its
bailout talks with the German government can be concluded soon.
Allianz reported a preliminary 30% drop in first quarter net profit and abandoned
its profit target for the full year.
Thyssenkrupp expects the coronavirus crisis to cause a new financial squeeze, despite the
expected cash-in from the sale of its elevator division. The FT reported that private equity
firms Cinven and Advent seek to offload risk on €17bn Thyssenkrupp deal agreed in February.
France's state-owned SNCF railways company estimates it will lose at least 3 billion euros,
Les Echos daily newspaper reported.
In the health care space, Roche has won emergency approval from in the U.S. for an
antibody test to determine whether people have ever been infected with the coronavirus, and
France's Biomérieux won more positive feedback from the U.S. regulator for its product aimed at
helping tests.
But there is life also on the M&A front: Telefonica confirmed talks with
billionaire John Malone's Liberty Global over a possible merger between both companies' British
units.
Meantime, banks continue to set aside billions of euros to cover for expected bad loans:
Societe Generale expects to provision 3.5 billion euros to 5 billion euros this year.
(Stefano Rebaudo and Joice Alves)
MORNING CALL: FUTURES FALL AMID U.S./CHINA VIRUS TENSIONS (0536 GMT)
European futures are well in the red on concerns that the U.S./China spat over the origin of
the coronavirus could threaten the economy further with fresh trade-war hostilities.
Asian stock markets were down today, in thin trading due to holidays in China and Japan.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday there was "a significant amount of
evidence" that the virus emerged from a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
(Stefano Rebaudo)
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(Reporting by Joice Alves, Julien Ponthus, Stefano Rebaudo and Thyagaraju Adinarayan)
