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ON THE RADAR: M&A ACTION, SONOVA SHINES (0737 GMT)
There's not that much in terms of big corporate news so far
this morning but we've Sonova Holding making some noise
premarket, rising due to better-than-expected half-year core
profits.
Also on a positive note, Vodafone said it was increasingly
confident about its full-year performance after a "resilient"
first-half, despite underlying momentum being obscured by the
impact of COVID-19.
There's also some interesting M&A action, notably with
Italy's largest payments group Nexi striking its second tie-up
deal in six weeks with a 7.8 billion euro merger with Nordic
rival Nets to create a major European player.
In the banking sector, Spanish lender BBVA will sell its
U.S. business for $11.6 billion in cash to PNC Financial
Services Group.
Also, the news is from Friday evening, Swedish steelmaker
SSAB is in talks with Tata Steel about potentially buying the
Indian group's Dutch steel mill in IJmuiden.
Also Norwegian oil major Equinor will alter its corporate
structure and cut the number of managers on its executive
committee, it said on Monday.
(Julien Ponthus and Danilo Masoni)
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EUROPE READY TO TAKE OFF (0629 GMT)
European bourses are getting ready to surf on the wave of
optimism coming from Asia where stocks hit a record high,
boosted by vaccine optimism and strong economic data from China
and Japan.
Futures for the DAX and the STOXX 50 are currently both up
1% with the derivative for the FTSE 100 gaining 0.7%.
It's the same story for Wall Street futures which are also
tracking the upbeat tone coming from the East.
There's however some risks creeping ahead this week, like
the Brexit trade talks for which a tentative deadline is set for
Thursday.
Also in the U.S., Axios reported that Trump plans a flurry
of aggressive policy moves against China in the coming 10 weeks.
(Julien Ponthus)
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