Corporate results:

  • Aviva posts a 9% rise in earnings for 2023 and proposes to buy back shares.
  • Brenntag misses forecasts by 2,023.
  • Brown-Forman lost 7% yesterday after cutting its annual sales forecast.
  • Continental reports lower-than-expected annual operating income due to a difficult market.
  • Darktrace raises its full-year sales and margin forecasts.
  • Hugo Boss forecasts operating profit for 2024 below market expectations.
  • Lufthansa reduces its operating margin target for 2024 to 7.6% due to higher costs.
  • Merck KGaA forecasts a return to organic earnings growth in 2024.
  • Nexi closes 2023 with an impairment loss of €1.3 billion and announces €500 million in share buybacks.
  • PageGroup reports a drop in annual profit due to the sluggish job market.
  • Telecom Italia halves net loss in 2023 to €1.44 bn. The operator reappoints its CEO.

In other news:

  • New York Community Bancorp raises $1bn and appoints Joseph Otting as CEO. Shares rallied 7.5% yesterday after the announcement.
  • KKR negotiates the acquisition of Encavis, rumored to be worth €2 billion.
  • Generali is ready to invest over €10 billion in acquisitions.
  • Meta called to order by a coalition of 41 US prosecutors.
  • Apple terminates the developer account of Epic Games, creator of Fortnite.
  • Novo Nordisk will present preliminary trial results for new diabetes drug at investor meeting.
  • UBS abandons Credit Suisse plan to phase out coal financing, Bloomberg reports.
  • WuXi AppTec falls 15% after the US Senate Homeland Security Committee votes in favor of a bill that could restrict trade with Chinese biotech companies.
  • Rieter wins an order in China.
  • Vetropack plans to close its St-Prex site.
  • Exxon Mobil said on Wednesday it had filed a request for arbitration concerning the sale of Hess's oil assets in Guyana, and hinted that it may oppose Chevron, which is in the process of concluding a deal for the assets. The arbitration procedure is designed to preserve Exxon's right to bid for Hess's 30% stake in the giant Stabroek offshore oil block, should Chevron go through with its planned takeover of Hess.
  • Eli Lilly fell back 2% before the opening after the presentation of Novo Nordisk's highly-anticipated treatment for obesity.
  • Chemours said on Wednesday that an internal review had revealed that its senior executives had manipulated certain payments and debt collections in the fourth quarter of 2023, in part to meet free cash flow targets on which their compensation depended. This will not affect preliminary results for 2023, the chemicals company said. The stock gained 4.5% before the opening.
  • General Electric - GE Aerospace, General Electric's aerospace division, on Thursday reaffirmed its outlook for the year and forecast operating profit of $10 billion in 2028, citing strong demand for its products and services.
  • Warner Music confirmed Thursday that it had approached French digital music group Believe in late February to begin talks on a potential tie-up.
  • Apple - European regulators have asked the group to explain why video game maker Epic Games has been banned from launching its own online marketplace for iPhones and iPads in Europe. Apple said it had been granted this right by the European courts.
  • Victoria’s Secret - The company forecasts lower-than-expected quarterly and annual sales, as consumers remain under pressure. JPMorgan lowers its recommendation from "neutral" to "underweight". The share price was down 30.2% before the opening.
  • Tesla - The electric carmaker, which declined for a third consecutive session on Wednesday, is down 0.6% in pre-market trading on Thursday, after less than reassuring analyst reports and after its Berlin gigafactory suffered an arson attack.
  • Nvidia, Micron Technology - The two semiconductor manufacturers gained 1.4% and 3.1% respectively in pre-market trading, extending their gains of the previous session.

Today's main earnings reports: Costco Wholesale, Oracle, Kroger, MongoDB, Merck KGaA, Continental, Aviva, Brenntag, Rentokil, Vivendi, Lufthansa...