[MARKET ANALYSIS] European equities rebound from Thursday's losses, Moncler supports the luxury sector; US equity futures taking impetus from its EZ counterparts

European bourses (STOXX 600 +0.4%) have rebounded from Thursday's selloff, with the FTSE MIB (+1.0%) and CAC 40 (+0.9%) leading gains. The FTSE 100 (0.6%) is also in the green, supported by strong January retail sales figures and a PSNB surplus figure, beating estimates by a large margin. A flurry of flash PMIs was also released across the Eurozone and UK. EZ came in strong with the manufacturing sector moving further into expansion after the German figure returned above the 50.0 mark for the first time in over 3 years. For the UK, Services and Manufacturing moved further in expansionary territory.
Sectors hold a positive bias; Consumer Products and Services (+1.7%) lead the standings, closely followed by Chemicals (+1.5%). On the other hand, the pullback in oil prices is weighing on the Energy sector (-0.4%). Moncler (+11%) announced a positive set of FY earnings, comfortably beating revenue and net income estimates. This is lifting other luxury companies such as LVMH (+2.9%) and Kering (+1.2%).
For the Defence sector, the US Department of Defence warned that it would retaliate if the EU restricts American arms makers under proposed “Buy European” procurement rules. This has resulted in modest weakness in EU defence names such as BAE Systems (-0.8%) and Dassault Systems (-0.5%).
Other key movers include Aston Martin (+0.2%), Anglo American (+1.6%) and Air Liquide (+3.0%). For the UK carmaker, Aston Martin issued another profit warning, stating that its FY Adj. EBIT will be at the lower end of market expectations. To ease cash concerns, the Co. agreed to sell its naming rights to its F1 team for GBP 50mln. AML LN shares were down as much as 3.5% but have since reversed losses entirely. Anglo American is the last of the top UK miners to report this week, announcing steady FY profits but it did take another impairment charge on its De Beers unit of USD 2.3bln, which took some shine away from a decent set of earnings. Air Liquide is supporting the Chemicals sector this morning despite reporting a miss on FY revenue and operating income. The lift higher comes as the Co. confirmed its 2026 margin guidance and raised its new operating margin target for 2027 by 100bps.
US equity futures (ES +0.4%, NQ/RTY +0.3%) are broadly in the green, rebounding after Thursday's losses in the Financial sector, which followed the report that Blue Owl halted redemptions at its private credit fund. The Co. has since come out and said it is not halting investor liquidity. Focus now turns to US GDP/PCE later.