Newsquawk Daily European Equity Opening News - 18th February 2026

APAC stocks traded higher in continued thin conditions as many regional bourses remained closed for holidays. ASX 200 mildly gained amid outperformance in real estate, tech and financials, with the latter helped by gains in Big 4 bank NAB post-earnings, although miners, materials and resources were at the other end of the spectrum after the prior day's commodities-related pressure. Nikkei 225 rallied back above the 57,000 level with sentiment in Japan underpinned by the better-than-expected trade data for January, which showed the fastest pace of increase in exports in more than three years.

CLOSES: Euro Stoxx 50 +0.78% at 6,025, Dax 40 +0.82% at 25,005, FTSE 100 +0.79% at 10,556, CAC 40 +0.54% at 8,361, FTSE MIB +0.76% at 45,764, IBEX 35 +0.60% at 17,955, PSI +0.17% at 9,074, SMI +0.78% at 13,763, AEX +0.27% at 996

SECTORS: Healthcare 1.55%, Consumer Disc 1.03%, Financials 0.99%, Telecoms 0.70%, IT 0.68%, Utilities 0.45%, Industrials -0.12%, Energy -0.37%, Consumer Stpl -0.44%, Materials -0.61%

Lloyds (LLOY LN) / Close Brothers (CBG LN) / Other Lenders - UK financial regulator plans to cut up to GBP 1bln from the compensation owed by carmakers over their in-house lenders’ involvement in a motor finance mis-selling scandal, according to FT. (FT)

UK defence - UK Chancellor Reeves is said to be resisting pressure to spend more on defence, The Telegraph reports citing sources.(The Telegraph)

OTHER UK COMPANIES

BROKER MOVES

Unilever (ULVR LN) downgraded to Hold from Buy at Berenberg

Volkswagen (VOW3 GY) - Financial Times reports that Blackstone, EQT and CVC are said to make offers for Volkswagen's Everllence unit. (Financial Times)

OTHER GERMAN COMPANIES

BROKER MOVES

Carrefour (CA FP) - Q4 2025 (EUR): Revenue 24.29bln (exp. 24.34bln); LFL sales 1.6% Y/Y. 2025 sales +2.8% on a like-for-like basis (LFL) EBITDA: 4.506bln (prev. 4.522bln Y/Y) Recurring operating income 2.158bln (prev. 2.280bln Y/Y). Adj. EPS 1.60 (prev. 1.74 Y/Y). The Group enters fiscal year 2026 with confidence. In France, the good performance of the legacy scope and the ramp-up of Cora & Match will contribute to the performance of the year within a market showing positive momentum. (Carrefour)

EssilorLuxottica (EL FP), Meta (META) - Apple (AAPL) reportedly ramps up work on AI glasses, pendant and camera airpods, according to Bloomberg. (Bloomberg)

OTHER FRENCH COMPANIES

BROKER MOVES

ASR Nederland (ASRNL NA) - FY 2025 (EUR): Revenue 1.64bln (prev. 1.46bln Y/Y), EPS 3.41 (prev. 3.12 Y/Y). Proposed dividend over 2025 rises by 9.3% to EUR 3.41/shr (prev. EUR 3.12/shr). (ASR Nederland)

ECB - ECB says that Lagarde remains committed to her role and has not made a decision on her departure. This follows an earlier report that ECB President Lagarde is expected to leave the ECB, before her eight-year term ends in October 2027, according to FT citing a person familiar with her thinking. (FT)

Eni (ENI IM) - Co is said to be considering a return to oil and gas trading, according to reports via the Financial Times. (Financial Times)

IMCD (IMCD NA) - FY 2025 (EUR): Revenue 4.78bln (exp. 4.82bln, prev. 4.73bln Y/Y), EBITA 498mln (prev. 531mln Y/Y), EPS 5.19 (prev. 6.34 Y/Y). • Dividend proposal of EUR 1.81 in cash per share (prev. EUR 2.15 Y/Y). (IMCD)

Leonardo (LDO IM) - Leonardo DRS (DRS) was awarded multiple contracts under the Missile Defense Agency Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense IDIQ contract, which carries a ceiling value of USD 151bln. The awards position the company to compete for future task orders across a broad range of air and missile defense work. (Leonardo DRS)

BROKER MOVES

Novartis (NOVN SW) - Co. announced positive topline results from its pivotal Phase III RemIND trial of oral remibrutinib in chronic inducible urticaria. (Novartis)

OTHER SWISS COMPANIES

Sandoz (SDZ SW) - Co. receives US FDA approval for expand Enzeevu label for multiple retinal indications. (Sandoz)

Straumann (STMN SW) - FY 2025 (CHF): Revenue 2.61bln (exp. 2.59bln, prev. 2.50bln Y/Y), EBITDA 738mln (prev. 747mln Y/Y). Basic EPS 2.24 (prev. 2.87 Y/Y). Proposed dividend of CHF 1.00 per share which represents a payout ratio of around 33% and an increase of 5%. Outlook 2026: high single-digit organic revenue growth expected, with a 30 to 60 bps improvement in core EBIT margin at constant exchange rates 2025, despite expected continued market volatility. (Straumann)

BROKER MOVES

BROKER MOVES

CLOSES: SPX +0.10% at 6,843, NDX -0.13% at 24,702, DJI +0.07% at 49,533, RUT +0.00% at 2,647

SECTORS: Consumer Staples -1.51%, Energy -1.37%, Materials -1.16%, Communication Services -0.60%, Utilities -0.37%, Health -0.19%, Consumer Discretionary -0.02%, Industrials +0.45%, Technology +0.49%, Financials +0.99%, Real Estate +1.03%.

Anthropic, Alphabet (GOOG), Amazon (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT) - Anthropic expects to pay at least USD 80bln to Amazon, Google and Microsoft through 2029 to run its Claude AI models on their cloud infrastructure, The Information reports. The projected spending underscores the massive computing costs required to train and operate advanced AI systems and the growing dependence of AI developers on major cloud providers.

Cadence Design (CDNS) - Shares of Cadence Design rose after it reported Q4 results that topped expectations, along with firm FY profit guidance. Q4 EPS 1.99 (exp. 1.91), Q4 revenue USD 1.44bln (exp. 1.42bln). Backlog rose to a record USD 7.8bln following strong Q4 bookings. Execs cited robust demand for AI products, adding that it was positioned to capitalise on AI-related opportunities. For FY26, sees EPS between 8.05-8.15 (exp. 8.03) and sees FY26 revenue between USD 5.9-6.0bln (exp. 5.94bln).

Cloud Services - User reports indicate issues with Amazon Web Services (AMZN), Cloudflare (NET) and Google (GOOG), according to Downdetector. (Downdetector)

Kenvue (KVUE) - Q4 EPS 0.27 (exp. 0.22), Q4 revenue USD 3.78bln (exp. 3.68bln). CEO said the focus in 2026 will be on further enhancing performance, and progressing towards completion of its planned value-creating combination with Kimberly-Clark. Expects pre-tax restructuring expenses and charges totalling about USD 250mln in FY26.

Microsoft (MSFT) - Co. plans USD 50bln investment by end of the decade to bring AI to countries in the Global South

Meta Platforms (META), Nvidia (NVDA) - Meta has struck a multiyear, multibillion-dollar deal to buy millions of next-gen Nvidia Vera Rubin chips, reinforcing Nvidia’s dominance in AI data centre hardware despite rising competition from AMD (AMD), and in-house chips developed by Big Tech, FT reports. Meta will also purchase Nvidia’s standalone CPUs, signalling a shift toward inference-focused AI workloads as spending surges.

Palo Alto Networks (PANW) - Shares fell 7.6% in extended trading after it issued profit guidance below expectations, overshadowing stronger than expected Q2 results. Q2 adj. EPS 1.03 (exp. 0.94), Q2 revenue USD 2.6bln (exp. 2.58bln). Q2 RPO +23% Y/Y to USD 16bln; next-generation security ARR +33% Y/Y to USD 6.3bln, reflecting continued platformisation trends and growing AI security adoption. Execs cited accelerating customer modernisation of cybersecurity stacks and announced the addition of Chronosphere and CyberArk employees to support future growth. For Q3, sees EPS between 0.78-0.80 (exp. 0.92) and sees Q3 revenue between USD 2.941-2.945bln (exp. 2.6bln), with RPO between USD 17.85-17.95bln, and next-generation security ARR between USD 7.94-7.96bln. For FY26, raises revenue view, sees FY26 revenue between USD 11.28-11.31bln (exp. 10.53bln), but lowers EPS guidance to between 3.65-3.70 (exp. 3.85); sees FY26 RPO between USD 20.2-20.3bln, next-generation security ARR between USD 8.52-8.62bln.

US Copper - Study shows that US has enough raw copper to meet domestic demand and can meet 146% of annual demand using raw copper from overseas and domestic mines and from scrap, while China 40% of its demand, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence cited by FT. (FT)

Tesla (TSLA) - Tesla avoided a potential 30-day suspension of vehicle sales in California after the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles said the company took corrective action over its marketing of automated-driving features, Bloomberg reports. (Bloomberg)