Last checked at 
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 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: WPP UP - ROLLS-ROYCE DOWN (0735 GMT)
Two British stocks are at the centre of market action this morning.
At the top of the STOXX 600 is WPP which jumped 5% after the world's biggest advertising
company beat dire forecasts for Q2, declared an interim dividend and said it was on track for
cost saving targets as it sought to weather the COVID pandemic.
At the bottom of the pan-European index is Rolls-Royce which had quite a few announcements
to make: The British aero-engines maker posted underlying loss before tax of 3.2 billion pounds
in H1, said its CFO would leave the group and flagged plans to sell assets to raise at least 2
billion pounds to boost a balance sheet. That's a lot to take in and the stock dropped about 5%.
The broader market has slightly shifted to the red with the STOXX 600 slipping 0.2% despite
some risk-on sectors such as travel and leisure (+1%) and autos (+0.5%) chalking up gains.
Tech is also up 0.3%, but that's small change in comparison with the euphoria on Wall Street
last night.
Talking about COVID-19 winners, Delivery Hero, which has seen its market value jump by a
third this year has not benefited from the acquisition of online grocery service InstaShop it
announced this morning. The stock is down 1.4%.
(Julien Ponthus)
*****
ON THE RADAR: A (VIRTUAL) JACKSON HOLE, FOOD DELIVERY AND WPP (0635 GMT)
Well it's hard to say anything about this session without mentioning Jackson Hole and the
Powell speech on inflation every trader on the planet is waiting for.
The big question is how dovish is dovish enough?
"There is no doubt that the Fed president will maintain his dovish policy stance in the
middle of an easing cycle", writes Ipek Ozkardeskaya at Swissquote Bank, warning her readers,
however, that "his message could remain short of the very dovish market expectations".
In the meantime and back here in the thick of the European August summer break, corporate
news is thin. But there are a few interesting headlines - first of all in the strategic COVID-19
proof online food delivery industry: Germany's Delivery Hero just announced it is acquiring
online grocery service InstaShop for an initial purchase price of around $270 million.
On the earnings front, WPP's results were the focus of many analysts seeking some insight on
how the advertising industry was coping with the recession.
It seems to be a relief: the world's biggest advertising company beat dire forecasts for
second-quarter underlying net sales, declared an interim dividend and said it was on track for
cost saving targets as it sought to weather the COVID pandemic.
Another company publishing a trading update was Switzerland's fragrance and flavour maker
Givaudan which confirmed plans to increase organic sales by 4-5% on average annually until 2025,
thanks mainly due to smaller local customers and fast-growing China.
In terms of M&A, Rolls-Royce appears committed to keep investment bankers busy with plans to
sell its Spanish unit ITP Aero and other assets to raise at least 2 billion pounds to boost its
balance sheet.
Shares in Swiss-listed drugmaker Cassiopea could get a boost after it won approval for its
first medicine, an acne treatment, from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, setting the stage
for a likely capital increase to support its launch.
(Julien Ponthus)
*****
ONLY 2 EUROPEAN STOCKS ARE WORTH MORE THAN NETFLIX (0552 GMT)
Talking about euphoria on Wall Street, Netflix, which had its best day in over three years
with a 11.6% jump is now worth a whopping $241.5 billion.
With markets caps of 294.8 and 258.6 billion euros respectively, Switzerland's Nestle and
Roche are the only European blue chips worth more than the U.S. TV binge-watching provider.
The third biggest stock on the continent is French luxury giant LVMH, currently worth 203.5
billion euros, which amounts to $240.7 billion at the moment, so just one billion short of
Netflix.
Of course, there are many other examples of U.S. tech darlings dwarfing European companies:
as a reminder, Apple itself is worth about the same as London's entire FTSE 100 combined and
there's no European stock worth more than Tesla.
(Julien Ponthus)
*****
MORNING CALL: NO EUPHORIA ON THIS SIDE OF THE POND (0532 GMT)
There's no clear trend in Europe yet with futures currently pointing to a flat open.
One thing is for sure: last night's euphoria on Wall Street which led to new record highs
and saw Netflix, Facebook and Salesforce.com surging is no where to be found this morning on
this side of the pound.
With the MSCI world equity index trading just short of its new record peak,
Europe's bourses are clearly lagging and have yet to catch the train of this new bull market.
On the bright side, the STOXX 600, still down about 10% year-to-date, is currently set to
make weekly gains of 2%, which would be its best performance since June.
(Julien Ponthus)
*****
