European Stocks Higher; UBS Shines, HSBC Weakens After Quarterly Results
2022.04.26 11:25
By Peter Nurse
Investing.com — European stock markets traded higher Tuesday, rebounding from the previous session’s sharp losses, as investors digest key quarterly earnings reports, particularly from the banking sector.
By 3:55 AM ET (0755 GMT), the DAX in Germany traded 1.1% higher, the CAC 40 in France rose 0.5% and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 climbed 0.7%.
The earnings season has arrived in Europe in full force, with the banking sector leading the way.
HSBC (LON:HSBA) stock fell 3.2% after Europe’s largest bank warned that further share buybacks were unlikely this year even as its pretax profit fell by less than expected in the first quarter.
UBS (SIX:UBSG) stock rose 1.3% after the Swiss lender posted its best first-quarter net profit in 15 years, rising 17% and beating expectations for a fall in profit amidst uncertainties over the war in Ukraine, thanks to strong trading.
Banco Santander (BME:SAN) stock fell 0.9% despite Spain’s biggest lender reporting its net profit in the first quarter beat forecasts, although it was lower than the profit booked in the fourth quarter of 2019 before Covid-19 hit the country.
Elsewhere, Maersk (CSE:MAERSKb) stock surged 5.8% after the shipping group raised its outlook for the full year after first-quarter operating profit came in above its previous expectations, driven by high container freight rates.
Orange (EPA:ORAN) stock fell 0.2% after France’s biggest telecoms operator said its first-quarter core operating profit grew only 1%.
European equity indices had closed significantly lower Monday, with sentiment fragile as the spreading of Covid-19 cases in China weighed on the economic growth outlook, while investors remain concerned about whether the global economy can withstand the increasingly hawkish pivot from the Federal Reserve.
That said, there was a late revival on Wall Street, with Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) in focus as it finally confirmed it had accepted Elon Musk’s $44 billion offer to take the social media platform private.
There are some significant earnings releases from the important tech sector this week, with both Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) reporting after the close Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine enters its third month, with Russian troops continuing to attack the Azovstal steel plant in the southeastern port city of Mariupol, where some 2,000 Ukrainian fighters are holding out.
Oil prices weakened Tuesday, adding to the sharp losses of the previous session with concerns remaining that more Covid-19 lockdowns in China will hit demand for crude from the world’s largest importer.
By 3:55 AM ET, U.S. crude futures traded 0.8% higher at $97.80 a barrel, while the Brent contract fell 0.6% to $101.60. Both benchmarks dropped around 4% on Monday.
Additionally, gold futures rose 0.1% to $1,896.95/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.3% lower at 1.0679.
