Stocks in Europe were mixed on Wednesday morning as investors await results from tech titan Nvidia, while UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer heads to Berlin for talks.
The FTSE 100 index opened up 2.19 points, or 0.1%, at 8,347.65. The FTSE 250 was down 4.36 points at 21,157.71, and the AIM All-Share was down 2.67 points, or 0.3%, at 776.51.
The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.2% at 835.07, the Cboe UK 250 was down 0.1% at 18,643.69, and the Cboe Small Companies was down 0.4% at 16,991.25.
‘We will probably have another calm trading session today, as investors will not be willing to move mountains before they see the latest results from Nvidia, that are due to be released today, after the closing bell,’ said Swissquote’s Ipek Ozkardeskaya.
‘The expectations for Nvidia’s Q2 results are sky-high, of course. In numbers, Nvidia’s own revenue forecast is a whopping $28 billion of sales in the Q2 of this year. That’s more than the double of the money the company made a year ago. And the market expectations are even more than that: they range between $27 and $32 billion.’
Back in the UK, Prime Minister Keir Starmer is focused on building Anglo-German relations.
He travels to Berlin on Wednesday to meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin on his first bilateral trip since taking office last month. The British leader, who will also travel on to Paris, has pledged to rebuild trust with European allies damaged by Brexit, and is set to hold talks with Scholz about launching a new bilateral accord with Germany.
The new deal – set to be similar to Britain’s 2010 ‘Lancaster House’ treaty with France – will take several months to negotiate and be finalised early next year, according to Starmer’s Downing Street office.
In European equities on Wednesday, the CAC 40 in Paris was down 0.3%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt was up 0.4%.
The pound was quoted at $1.3225 early on Wednesday in London, up compared to $1.3230 at the equities close on Tuesday. The euro stood at $1.1149 down, against $1.1162. Against the yen, the dollar was trading at JP¥144.60, up compared to JP¥144.27.
In the FTSE 100, Prudential was down 0.1%.
The insurance company raised its first interim dividend by 9.3% to 6.84 US cents per share from 6.26c a year prior despite a 66% fall in IFRS attributable pretax profit to $394 million in the first half of 2024 from $1.18 billion a year before. Adjusted operating profit was $1.54 billion, up 6% from $1.46 billion.
New business profit was down 1% to $1.47 billion from $1.49 billion, but the Asia-focused insurer and asset manager said it saw a pick-up in sales momentum in June, which has continued into the second half of the year. It expects new business profit to grow in all of 2024 in line with its objective for 2022-27 of a 15% to 20% compound annual growth rate.
In the FTSE 250, John Wood gained 2.7%.
The firm has signed separate sales agreements for the sale of two businesses, which together are expected to generate net proceeds of around $165 million this year, including loan notes of up to $42 million.
John Wood has signed for the sale of its stake in Ethos Energy and CEC Controls Co. Combined, these two business contributed $41 million to Wood’s adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation in 2023.
Wood expects net cash proceeds of around $125 million from the disposals. In addition, Wood will be issued loan notes by EthosEnergy which, on repayment around five years after completion, will generate further proceeds of up to $42 million plus interest.
In Asia on Wednesday, the Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo was up 0.2%. In China, the Shanghai Composite was down 0.4%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was down 0.9%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney closed just 0.20 points higher.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the monthly consumer price index rose 3.5% in the 12 months to July, down from 3.8% in June. This compared to FXStreet-cited consensus of a 3.4% rise.
Leigh Merrington, ABS acting head of prices statistics, said: ‘CPI inflation is often impacted by items with volatile price changes like in automotive fuel, fruit and vegetables, and holiday travel. It can be helpful to exclude these items from the headline CPI to see underlying inflation, which was 3.7% in July, down from 4.0% in June.’
In the US on Tuesday, Wall Street ended higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up just 9.98 points, the S&P 500 up 0.2% at 5,625.80, and the Nasdaq Composite up 0.2% at 17,754.82.
As the presidential campaign heats up, prosecutors have filed a revised indictment of Donald Trump on charges that he tried to overturn the 2020 US election after losing to Joe Biden.
The superseding indictment retains the same four charges against Trump but takes into account the recent Supreme Court ruling that a former president has broad immunity from criminal prosecution.
Meanwhile, in the Democrat camp, US Vice President Kamala Harris will sit down with CNN this week for her first interview since President Joe Biden dropped his re-election bid.
She will be joined by her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. Harris has been criticised for not holding news conferences or granting interviews with news outlets since Biden stepped aside on July 21.
Brent oil was quoted at $79.63 a barrel early in London on Wednesday, down from $80.07 late Tuesday.
Crude oil, which rallied to its 200-DMA on mounting tensions in Middle East and Libya, failed to break offers at this level and fell nearly 2% as most traders brought the global growth concerns and the sluggish Chinese recovery back on the table. The barrel of US crude eased to $76pb level and is consolidating near this level this morning.
Gold was quoted at $2,505.20 an ounce, down against $2,517.10.
Still to come on Wednesday’s economic calendar, there are consumer confidence prints from France and Germany in the morning, followed by money supply from the eurozone, and US EIA crude oil stocks later in the day.
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