Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of European equity markets brought to you by Reuters
stocks reporters and anchored today by Thyagaraju Adinarayan. Reach him on Messenger to share
your thoughts on market moves: thyagaraju.adinarayan.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net
WHEN VIKINGS DOMINATED EUROPE (1052 GMT)
Last blog post was about Europe's 2019 winners, now it's time to look at this decade's best
performers by countries and sectors.
Once again, it wasn't easy to guess the winner (Denmark), although the worst performer
(Greece) one was quite obvious. The charts below will tell you the story:
** NOTE: All countries represented by the MSCI index and are in dollar terms
(Thyagaraju Adinarayan)
*****
THE 2019 WINNERS WERE OUTSIDE THE COMFORT ZONE (1010 GMT)
Picking the best regional benchmarks in 2019 was a task for the brave! Russia and Greece
were the best performers but clearly not an obvious choice at the beginning of the year.
"This just goes to show that buying what is comfortable is rarely the route to big profits,"
wrote Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.
Here's his table of 2019 winners and losers:
(Julien Ponthus)
*****
OPENING SNAPSHOT: PAINFULLY SLOW
(Yawn!) Market have opened and there isn't one move that's significant enough to talk about.
The pan-European STOXX 600 is up 0.1%, driven by the financial services and auto
sector.
Among single stocks, NMC Health is still roiled by the Muddywaters report, falling
another 3% this morning and on track for a 40% loss this week, its worst weekly performance
ever.
Adidas shares are down 0.5% on negative read-across from Nike; Shell off 0.8% on
$2.3 billion impairment charge; Swatch down 2% on Goldman Sachs downgrade
(Thyagaraju Adinarayan)
*****
ON OUR RADAR: SHELL, CREDIT SUISSE (0753 GMT)
It's yet another quiet day with markets largely expected to open unchanged as we approach (a
much needed) Christmas break. A few corporate updates, such as Shell and Credit Suisse's Q4
update, could keep the day alive.
Traders see Shell shares falling 2% on the oil giant's expectation of lower capex
and a $2.3 billion impairment charge in the fourth quarter.
Credit Suisse's shares are seen 1% higher by one trader after the Swiss bank said
it would book a pre-tax gain of at least 450 million Swiss francs in Q4 from the revised
accounting treatment of its stake in financial infrastructure company SIX Group.
Nike shares, which were close to record highs, fell 2% overnight after it reported
slightly lower-than-expected margins. Nike's margins were mainly hurt by higher product costs
due to incremental tariffs in North America. Dealers believe Nike share fall could have a
negative impact on Adidas and JD Sports.
(Thyagaraju Adinarayan)
*****
PRE-CHRISTMAS LULL (0633 GMT)
European stocks are poised to open flat to slightly higher as market activity slows down
ahead of Christmas next week.
Financial spreadbetters IG expect London's FTSE to open flat at 7,574, Frankfurt's DAX to
open 9 points higher at 13,221, and Paris' CAC to open 4 points higher at 5,976.
Meanwhile, U.S. stocks crawled up to yet another record high overnight on comments that
Washington is likely to seal a trade deal with Beijing in January.
(Thyagaraju Adinarayan)
*****
(Reporting by Danilo Masoni, Joice Alves, Julien Ponthus and Thyagaraju Adinarayan)
