Newsquawk Daily European Equity Opening News - 7th July 2026

ASIA

Asia-Pac stocks traded entirely in the red, failing to follow on from the positive sentiment seen stateside, as Samsung's Q2 preliminary earnings seemingly disappoint despite beating estimates. ASX 200 fared better vs peers, though still traded with mild losses. IT topped the sector pile while Metals & Mining was the sector underperformer, as precious metals gave back some of last week’s gains. Nikkei 225 traded with losses in excess of 2%, as Kioxia was weighed on by losses in Samsung. KOSPI slumped, with circuit breakers triggered twice, following losses in Samsung. Samsung reported Q2 prelim. figures, in which operating profit beat estimates while revenue printed mid-range of analyst’s expectations (KRW 171tln vs exp. KRW 169-173.9tln). The outlook also included the provisions for employee bonuses, after the Co. agreed to give bonuses equivalent to 10.5% of business performance earnings. Despite the recent selloff, investors are still quite bullish, with analysts citing the increased volatility due to leveraged ETFs as a main reason for the extended selloff, with profit-taking also a key reason. Elsewhere, Hanwha Ocean fell after Canada preferred TKMS (TKMS GY) for its submarine project. Shanghai Comp.and Hang Seng were softer, but to a lesser extent than the Nikkei and KOSPI. Key movers were Tencent and Kuaishou Technology, after the former sold part of its stake in the latter.

BHP (BHP AT) - Co. gets approval to start its USD 15bln copper expansion in Chile. (Bloomberg)

Chinese Smartphones - China smartphone sales fell 13% Y/Y during the 618 shopping festival as brands raised prices to offset higher memory costs, according to Counterpoint Research All major Chinese brands except Huawei posted double-digit drops. (Reuters)

LG Energy (373220 KS) - Q2 operating profit KRW 113.3bln (exp. 210.7bln), Q2 revenue KRW 7.56tln (exp. 7.22tln). Operating profit fell 77% Y/Y as sluggish EV demand continued to weigh on battery sales, though revenue still rose 24.8% Y/Y. Quarterly guidance includes US Inflation Reduction Act tax credits for battery production in the US; excluding those credits, LG Energy would have posted an operating loss of KRW 128bln. (LG Energy)

LG Electronics (066570 KS) - Q2 Prelim. (KRW): Operating Profit 1.58tln (prev. 0.64tln Y/Y), Revenue 23.8tln (prev. 20.7tln Y/Y). (LG Electronics)

Samsung Electronics (005930 KS) - Samsung shares initially fell overnight after it announced prelim. Q2 figures, where despite stronger-than-expected record profit, the results were seen as priced in and failed to ease concerns about the sustainability of the AI-driven memory chip boom, and as results included one-off employee bonus provisions. Q2 prelim. operating profit seen at KRW 89.4tln (exp. 84.2tln), Q2 prelim. revenue at KRW 171tln (exp. 172.2tln). The results include deducted one-off expenses for employee bonus provisions following recent labour negotiations, after it agreed earlier this year to scrap its 1,000% base salary bonus cap and earmark 10.5% of operating profit for bonuses. (Samsung Electronics)

EUROPEAN CLOSES

CLOSES: Euro Stoxx 50 -0.27% at 6,396, DAX +0.15% at 25,818, FTSE 100 -0.26% at 10,652, CAC 40 -0.33% at 8,480, AEX -0.07% at 1,082, IBEX 35 -0.85% at 19,684, FTSE MIB +0.27% at 52,959, SMI -0.85% at 14,302, PSI -1.19% at 9,217

SECTORS: Energy 0.31%, Financials 0.00%, IT -0.01%, Telecoms -0.01%, Industrials -0.10%, Consumer Disc -0.39%, Materials -0.79%, Consumer Stpl -1.34%, Utilities -1.82%, Healthcare -1.88%

FTSE 100

HSBC (HSBA LN) - Co. is reportedly halting lending to riskier private credit clients that do not provide sufficient returns to justify the risk, instead focusing on lending to less risky private credit funds, the FT reports. (FT)

Shell (SHEL LN) - Adnoc unit buys Shell South Africa fuel stations at an enterprise value of USD 1bln. The agreement covers the acquisition of 100% of the share capital of Shell Downstream South Africa (SDSA) with an implied enterprise value of USD 1bln prior to adjustment for net debt and working capital (Newswires)

UK Politics - Andy Burnham has decided not to split the treasury as part of a radical drive to boost Britain's growth, according to FT sources. (FT)

OTHER UK COMPANIES

BROKER MOVES

DuneIm (DNLM LN) initiated with Neutral at BNP Paribas

Ferguson (FERG LN) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs; analysts cite subdued growth prospects

ITV (ITV LN) downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JPMorgan

Rentokil (RTO LN) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman Sachs

DAX

OTHER GERMAN COMPANIES

Nordex Group (NDX1 GY) - Co. receives orders totalling 700 MW from UKA in Germany. (Nordex)

TKMS (TKMS GY) - Co. announces that it has been selected as the preferred supplier for the Canadian Patrol Submarine Project. Profitable growth path will be supported by an increase of the current order backlog by more than 50% with the first boat delivered by 2033. (TKMS) Shares +2.4% in pre-market trade.

BROKER MOVES

CAC

Eiffage (FGR FP) - Acquires Baatz from Hein Group, no terms disclosed. (Newswires)

Renault (RNO FP) - The co. has reportedly been approached twice by Chinese automaker, BYD (002594 CH), offering to take a stake in Renault, Les Echos reports (Les Echos)

OTHER FRENCH COMPANIES

Saint Gobain (SGO FP) - Acquires Xype, with no terms disclosed. (Newswires)

BROKER MOVES

Legrand (LR FP) upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Barclays

PAN EUROPE

Saipem (SPM IM) - Co. has been awarded a contract worth USD 2bln in Indonesia. Has won a contract for the engineering, procurement, construction and installation of a floating production, storage and offloading unit for the Kutei North Hub Field Development project, located in the Kutei basin in the East Kalimantan region of Indonesia. (Saipem)

Tech - Samsung Electronics (005930 KS) shares fell 9.5% in Korean trade, despite reporting record profits which topped most analyst expectations. Investors remain concerned about elevated valuations within the sector. (See the APAC session above for details). Pre-market: Infineon (IFX GY) -2.9%, ASML (ASML NA) -1.4%, STMicroelectronics (STMPA FP) -2.6%

BROKER MOVES

SMI

Givaudan (GIVN SW) - Co. announces the strategic collaboration with Microcaps. (Givaudan)

Roche (ROP SW) - Roche presents new data in Alzheimer’s disease from across its integrated pharmaceutical and diagnostics portfolio at AAIC. Five oral presentations in a Featured Research Session will highlight trontinemab, including new long-term data from Phase Ib/IIa BrainshuttleTM AD study and design of Phase III PrevenTRON study in preclinical Alzheimer’s. (Roche)

OTHER SWISS COMPANIES

BROKER MOVES

SCANDINAVIA

Clas Ohlson (CLASB SS) - Sales increased in June compared to the previous year. Sales in June were positively impacted by calendar effects of 3 percentage points. Compared with the same month of the preceding year, the store network increased by 9 stores. (Clas Ohslon)

Genmab (GMAB DC) - Co. announced that the European Commission (EC) granted marketing authorization for TEPKINLY® (epcoritamab) in combination with lenalidomide and rituximab (TEPKINLY + R2) for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory (R/R) follicular lymphoma (FL). (Genmab)

Skanska (SKAB SS) - Co. was awarded a SEK 870mln additional contract for data center in Virgina. (Skanska)

BROKER MOVES

US

CLOSES: SPX +0.72% at 7,537, NDX +1.26% at 29,698, DJI +0.29% at 53,061, RUT +0.45% at 3,009

SECTORS: Communication Services +1.64%, Technology +1.34%, Consumer Discretionary +0.95%, Financials +0.85%, Industrials +0.84%, Materials -0.18%, Energy -0.26%, Consumer Staples -0.90%, Real Estate -0.90%, Utilities -1.06%, Health -1.17%

AbbVie (ABBV) - AbbVie said Q2 prelim adj. EPS is seen between 3.57-3.61 (exp. 3.79). The preliminary Q2 range includes USD 291mln of acquired IPR&D and milestone expense on a pre-tax basis, representing an unfavourable impact of 0.17/shr to both GAAP diluted EPS and adj. diluted EPS. Lowered its FY26 guidance; sees adj. EPS between 13.91-14.11 (exp. 14.28; prev. saw 14.08-14.28), reflecting the impact of Q2 acquired IPR&D and milestone expenses.

Nvidia (NVDA) - Co. says "our roadmap is intact" in response to delay report. (Newswires)

Walmart (WMT) - Walmart announced price cuts on beef, produce, drinks, pools, toys, grills and summer clothing, citing investments in price for the summer season. US President Trump subsequently posted on social media claiming the cuts were made at his administration's request, though Walmart's statement made no mention of him or his administration, NYT notes. (NYT)