Dec 18 - Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of
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EUROPE OPENS ON THE BACKFOOT (0839 GMT)
European bourses opened just slightly in the red this
morning, pretty much in line with futures' early trading.
One exception though was London's FTSE 100 which is just
slightly in positive territory but that's mainly doe to the
currency boost of the pound suffering the usual post-Brexit
trade deal angst.
As for sectors, this is clearly a risk-off morning with
healthcare performing best and travel and leisure at the bottom.
The worst performer and by far is Poland's CD Projekt
whose Cyberpunk 2077 video game is being pulled out by
Sony Corp from its PlayStation Store after gamers complained
that the flagship title was rife with bugs.
Among gainers, Germany's stay-at-home champion Hellofresh
was at the top of the list, rising over 3%.
In the UK, Frankie and Benny's owner Restaurant Group
sustained losses of the same proportion as it warned Q1
would be challenging due to COVID-19 restrictions.
There was substantial M&A news with France's Vivendi
announcing that a Tencent-led consortium would exercise its
option to buy an additional 10% stake in Universal Music Group
based on a deal giving UMG an enterprise value of 30 billion
euros.
(Julien Ponthus)
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MORNING CALL: A CAUTIOUS START TO BLACK EYE FRIDAY (0635
GMT)
European futures are cautiously down about 0.3% at the
moment, which fits quite well the mood of this year's Black Eye
Friday: not much of a wild office party night out with most of
the UK under lockdowns.
As a matter of fact, it seems much of the party for stock
markets took place on Wall Street yesterday with new record
highs triggered by U.S. fiscal stimulus hopes.
The mood in Asia overnight has not been quite as exuberant
with most benchmarks currently losing ground.
(Julien Ponthus)
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