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: EUROPEAN SUMMER SEASON (0740 GMT)
The news flow this morning looks like your typical Parisian street during the national
August break: close to empty and traffic is very thin.
One interesting piece of news this weekend is that a consortium comprising France's Euronext
and Italian state-lender CDP is among bidders for the bond-trading platform of the
London Stock Exchange's (LSE) Borsa Italiana unit, two sources said on Saturday.
Also interesting, Norway's largest private asset manager Storebrand has divested
from ExxonMobil, Chevron, Rio Tinto and BASF citing
their lobbying practices regarding climate.
Rio Tinto said on Monday it will cut the short-term bonuses of its CEO
Jean-Sébastien Jacques and two other senior executives following a review of the company's
destruction of two ancient caves in Australia.
Meantime, education publisher Pearson has appointed Andy Bird, a media veteran who
ran the international arm of The Walt Disney Company, as its new CEO. While the boss of
wholesale group Metro will leave at end of year and Qiagen chairman has quit after Thermo
Fisher's takeover bid failed.
There is news from Brazil, where prosecutors pressed charges on Friday against two people
for an alleged scheme to obtain confidential market information from Petrobras to
benefit A.P. Moller-Maersk.
In the health care space, Swiss drugmaker Novartis said on Saturday that its immuno-oncology
drug candidate failed skin cancer trial.
(Julien Ponthus and Joice Alves)
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MORNING CALL: CORONAVIRUS TREATMENT NEWS UPLIFT (0535 GMT)
News the FDA has authorised the use of blood plasma from recovered coronavirus patients and
a report that the Trump administration is considering fast-tracking a UK vaccine is lifting
sentiment this morning.
Nothing exuberant though: European futures are up about 0.5% at the moment, which isn't
particularly high given the STOXX 600 closed on a weekly loss of about 1% on Friday evening.
"As such today’s European open looks set to be a modestly positive one, with markets in Asia
trading modestly higher in a week that is relatively light on data, but where investors will be
looking anxiously for further evidence that the rise in virus cases, that is taking place across
the globe, is starting to affect the various recoveries from differing stages of lockdown",
writes CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.
(Julien Ponthus)
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Pearson (PSON)