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.
ON THE RADAR: BANKS, LUFTHANSA, WILLIAM HILL, BOOHOO (0647 GMT)
European futures reverse early losses and are now in positive territory as investors remain
uncertain as they see signs of economic recovery but fears of a second wave of COVID-19
infections continue to weigh on market sentiment.
On the corporate front the impact of the pandemic but also of the easing in lockdowns is in
the spotlight.
HSBC is resuming a massive redundancy plan it had put on ice following the outbreak
of coronavirus and will cut 35,000 jobs over the medium term.
A recession could help accelerate mergers and acquisitions in the bank sector in Europe, the
head of Deutsche Bank's wealth management business said in a newspaper interview.
Boohoo sees annual results above expectations after first-quarter revenue jumped 45%, and
buys Oasis and Warehouse.
British bookmaker William Hill launched an issue of shares worth up to 20% of its
share capital as it posted a slight improvement in total net revenue growth helped by the return
of horse racing and the German Bundesliga.
Kingfisher underlying sales increased 21.8% year-on-year in its second quarter so far to
June 13 as its stores across Europe emerged from coronavirus lockdowns.
Dutch postal and parcel services provider PostNL sees its full-year normalised
operating profit "strongly" above the previous guidance.
Norwegian Air will resume flights on 76 routes that were halted during the novel
coronavirus outbreak and bring back into service 12 of its mothballed aircraft.
Bayer AG will scrap a nearly $1 billion project to produce the chemical dicamba
in the U. S., but said the move is unrelated to a federal court decision that blocked sales of
weed killers based on the product.
Shares in Lufthansa are up 1.5% after German investor Heinz Hermann Thiele has
raised his stake in the company, which this month agreed to a state bailout, to more than 15%
from 10%, he told newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in an interview.
Volkswagen will pay a 48% premium to buy out the minority shareholders of
premium division Audi.
Companies are also assessing the impact of a possible escalating in tensions with China.
Deutsche Telekom has sketched out a scenario that foresees a 3 billion euro hit to costs should
Chinese suppliers be excluded from its German 5G network, Handelsblatt reports citing an
internal document.
(Stefano Rebaudo)
*****
MORNING CALL: VIRUS STILL WEIGHS, BUT NO CLEAR DIRECTION
European futures are slightly in the red after yesterday's jump as fears of a coronavirus
resurgence keep weighing.
Geopolitics added to concerns with Indian reporting 20 of its soldiers being killed in
clashes with Chinese troops and fresh tensions between North and South Korea.
Market sentiment has been swinging between risk appetite and aversion in the last few days
and doesn't seem ready to take a clear direction yet.
Asian stocks fell overnight while Wall Street ended about 2% higher after retail sales
jumped by a record 17.7% in May.
(Stefano Rebaudo)
*****
HSBC Holdings (HSBA)