Newsquawk Daily European Equity Opening News - 3rd September 2026

APAC stocks eventually traded mixed after initially posting gains. The stocks lost steam heading into the European open despite a lack of newsflow at the time. ASX 200 index was led by outperformance in the top-weighted financial sector and miners, but with further gains capped amid quiet newsflow and mixed trade data. Nikkei 225 initially traded with cautious gains before faltering amid recent currency moves and hawkish BoJ rate hike bets following the recent commentary from BoJ Governor Ueda and hawkish dissenter Takata. KOSPI outperformed early in the session with some tech and energy names among the notable gainers. The index fell into red later in the session. Hang Seng and Shanghai Comp were mixed with some encouragement from stronger-than-expected Chinese RatingDog Services PMI data, although the PBoC's open market operations amount remained at zero. Both indices then traded in the red.

Chinese PMIs - RatingDog Services PMI (Aug) 51.4 vs. Exp. 50.6 (Prev. 50.4); Composite PMI (Aug) 52.1 (Prev. 50.8)

KEPCO (015760 KS), Samsung Electronics (005930 KS), SK Hynix (000660 KS) - KEPCO has reportedly proposed to Samsung and SK Hynix to pay KRW 20tln and KRW 5tln in advance for power to help fund grid expansion, Chosun Ilbo reports. (Chosum Ilbo)

CLOSES: Euro Stoxx 50 -0.10% at 6,363, DAX -0.47% at 25,837, CAC 40 -0.26% at 8,281, FTSE 100 -0.29% at 10,758, SMI +0.10% at 14,350, FTSE MIB -0.24% at 51,793, IBEX 35 -0.20% at 19,775, PSI -0.77% at 9,405, AEX +0.16% at 1,104.

BP (BP/ LN) - Co. secretary Mathews is to step down and move into a special advisor role. (BP)

Ex-Dividends - Admiral Group (ADM LN), Antofagasta (ANTO LN) and Aviva (AV/ LN) will trade without entitlement to their latest dividend. (dividenddata)

FTSE 100 reshuffle - easyJet (EZJ LN) and Ithaca Energy (ITH LN) to join the FTSE 100, replacing Entain (ENT LN) and Persimmon (PSN LN); effective September 21st. (LSEG)

GSK (GSK LN) - HUTCHMED (0013 HK) announces that a subsidiary has entered into an exclusive development and license agreement with a subsidiary of GSK, granting it worldwide rights excluding Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan to develop and commercialise HMPL-A830. The agreement includes a USD 110mln upfront payment and potential development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments, for up to a total of USD 1.295bln. (HUTCHMED)

Shell (SHEL LN), BP (BP/ LN) - bp and Shell have agreed terms for Shell to acquire a 50% stake in the Tupinambá exploration block in the Santos Basin, offshore Brazil, in addition to a 30% stake in five leases containing the Conifer exploration prospect in the deepwater Gulf of America Paleogene. (BP)

UK Taxes - UK Business Secretary Reynolds has privately told business leaders that the government is not pursuing an exit tax, with a source categorically rejecting the idea, the FT reports. (FT)

Vodafone (VOD LN) - VodafoneThree is preparing to launch a UK TV service, which will include other streaming services to existing UK customers. The service will launch next month. (FT)

OTHER UK COMPANIES

BROKER MOVES

Ithaca Energy (ITH LN) initiated with Equal Weight at Citi

Pearson (PSON LN) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citi

Prudential (PRU LN) initiated with Buy at Berenberg

SSE (SSE LN) initiated with Outperform at Societe Generale

Deutsche Telekom (DTE GY) - Elliott Management has reportedly built a sizable stake in the Co. and has pushed to scrap merger talks with T-Mobile US (TMUS) to focus on other ways to boost shareholder value, Bloomberg reports. (Bloomberg)

OTHER GERMAN COMPANIES

Delivery Hero (DHER GY) - Co.'s board has recommended holders accept Uber's (UBER) EUR 41.50/shr takeover bid. (Delivery Hero)

BROKER MOVES

OTHER FRENCH COMPANIES

Soitec (SOI FP) - Q2 Trading Update: Guides Q2 revenue growth of 50% Y/Y (prev. guided 30%), due to accelerating demand for Photonics-SOI and greater visibility on near-term customer requirements. (Soitec)

BROKER MOVES

Legrand (LR FP) upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank

ASML (ASML NA) - Zeiss Group exec. says it is reasonable to assume that China will need 15 years to develop EUV lithography machines. (Bloomberg)

Eni (ENI IM) - Co. announces it has signed a contract in Venezuela to become an operator of Junin-5 oil field. The field currently produces around 12k bbl/day. (Eni)

BROKER MOVES

Banca Mediolanum (BMED IM) initiated with Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley

Benefit Systems (BFT PW) initiated with Buy at Citi

Saipem (SPM IM) initiated with Hold at SEB

Holcim (HOLN SW) - Co. launches a new calcined clay production line at its Čížkovice plant, enabling the supply of 580,000 tonnes of ECOPlanet low-carbon cement to customers every year. The Čížkovice line is Holcim Czech Republic’s largest ever investment at c. CHF 40 million (EQS)

Nestle (NESN SW) - Co. announces that it will invest USD 393mln in its nutrition and health division in Brazil through 2028, which will include a new infant formula plant. (Reuters)

OTHER SWISS COMPANIES

BROKER MOVES

Nokia (NOKIA FH) - Co. announces a commercial agreement with BeeHealthy to integrate Nokia’s Network as Code technology into the consumer-facing applications BeeHealthy provides to care providers and insurers. (Nokia)

BROKER MOVES

Aker BP (AKRBP NO) downgraded to Sell from Hold at SEB

Aker BP (AKRBP NO) initiated with Underweight at Morgan Stanley

EQT (EQT SS) reinitiated with Overweight at Morgan Stanley

Equinor (EQNR NO) downgraded to Sell from Hold at SEB

SalMar (SALM NO) downgraded to Hold from Buy at Norne Securities

Var Energi (VAR NO) initiated with Overweight at Morgan Stanley

CLOSES: SPX +0.48% at 7,668, NDX +0.23% at 29,143, DJI +0.56% at 53,062, RUT +1.23% at 2,956.

SECTORS: Materials +1.54%, Communication Services +1.16%, Health +0.79%, Financials +0.78%, Technology +0.33%, Energy +0.33%, Consumer Staples +0.20%, Utilities +0.19%, Consumer Discretionary +0.19%, Industrials +0.02%, Real Estate -0.78%.

Broadcom (AVGO) - Shares fell around 1.5% in extended US trading after Q4 revenue and margin outlooks came in below expectations, outweighing stronger quarterly results and a raised longer-term AI revenue forecast. Q3 adj. EPS 3.32 (exp. 3.24), Q3 revenue USD 29.6bln (exp. 29.43bln). AI semiconductor revenue +221% Y/Y and +54% Q/Q to USD 16.7bln, driven by strong demand for custom AI accelerators and networking. Execs said customer demand remains very strong, with visibility into additional AI infrastructure deployments through FY28 and sufficient supply secured to support the higher outlook. Sees Q4 revenue approximately USD 34.8bln (exp. 35.03bln), sees Q4 adj. EBITDA margin approximately 66% (exp. 66.5%), sees Q4 AI revenue +236% Y/Y at USD 21.7bln, and sees Q4 CapEx of USD 1.4bln. Raises FY26 AI revenue view to USD 58bln (prev. saw 56bln), sees FY27 AI revenue USD 115bln, and sees FY28 AI semiconductor revenue approximately USD 230bln. It also plans to begin deploying its Singapore substrate fab in FY27 to address supply bottlenecks.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) - HPE shares fell over 5% in extended trading, despite beating quarterly expectations and raising its forecasts, as persistent supply constraints, particularly in memory and other components, weighed. Q3 adj. EPS 1.11 (exp. 0.94), Q3 revenue USD 12.2bln (exp. 11.99bln). with AI demand drove record revenue, orders and profitability. Execs said AI is becoming a multi-year growth driver, and demand is far outstripping supply, with memory the main bottleneck, followed by NAND, CPUs and drives. It also expanded its Oracle (ORCL) collaboration to deploy Juniper Networking across Oracle AI data centres and issued Oracle warrants to purchase HPE shares. Sees Q4 adj. EPS between 1.20-1.30 (exp. 1.07), Q4 revenue between USD 13.9-14.8bln (exp. 13.04bln). Raises its year-end AI orders target to between USD 2.5-3.0bln, and disclosed a USD 3.5bln hyperscaler inferencing deal awarded after Q3. Raises FY26 adj. EPS view to between 3.75-3.85 (exp. 3.45; prev. saw 3.35-3.45) and raises FY26 revenue growth to between 34%-37% (prev. saw 29%-33%). For FY27, it raises its revenue growth view to between 13-17% (prev. saw 8-12%), sees FY27 adj. EPS growth between 16-20% (prev. saw 12-16%), with an operating margin between 14-15% and free cash flow of at least USD 5.0bln.

Snowflake (SNOW) - Snowflake surged 24% in extended trading after a Q2 beat, and Q3 product revenue guidance topped forecasts, while it also raised its FY product revenue and margin outlook, supported by momentum in its AI coding tools. Q2 adj. EPS 0.62 (exp. 0.45), Q2 revenue USD 1.55bln (exp. 1.48bln). Q2 product revenue +37% Y/Y at USD 1.49bln. CoCo AI coding agent reached 9,100 accounts, up by more than 2,000 during the quarter. Execs said AI is creating a flywheel across adoption, user growth, new workloads and platform consumption, with CoWork and CoCo driving broader enterprise AI usage. Sees Q3 product revenue between USD 1.588-1.593bln (exp. 1.50bln); it also raises its FY27 product revenue to USD 6.07bln (prev. saw 5.84bln), and lifted its FY27 adj. operating margin view to 14.5% (prev. saw 13.5%).