European stock markets fall after earnings flurry; Tui up 5%

Chris Hayward, chairman of the policy committee at City of London corporation, discusses the opportunities and challenges in scaling up firms in the U.K. and why it needs to “step up the game” to bring full economic benefits.

James Sym, head of equities at River & Mercantile, discusses the European banking system and the outlook for monetary policy of major central banks.

Finnish energy market tech provider Wartsila led Stoxx 600 gains, rising 9.4% after reporting a 19% rise in net sales and a swing in operating results from a loss of 147 million euros ($161.9 million) to a profit of 92 million euros.

Watches of Switzerland was up 9% shortly before 1 p.m. in London. Reuters reported at 9:30 a.m. that market rumors blog Betaville posted that the company was attracting takeover interest. No further details or sourcing were given.

Swedish metals firm Boliden fell 5.7% on its own first-quarter results, which showed a decline in revenue and operating profit.

Meanwhile, Spanish bank Santander was down 4.8% amid wider European banking sector declines, despite beating net profit estimates.

— Jenni Reid

Stoxx 600 companies are set for a 2.5% fall in earnings growth in first-quarter reports, Refinitiv/IBES data cited by Reuters suggests.

That is down from a forecast of 5.4% growth before recent turmoil in the banking sector.

Economists have flagged growth risks from tightening credit conditions, though several companies have already outperformed as earnings season gets underway and China’s reopening presents a tailwind for many sectors.

Luxury goods giant LVMH smashed past sales expectations earlier this month, and on Monday became the first European company with a $500 billion market value.

Nestle said it raised prices by 9.8% in the first quarter due to “significant cost inflation.”

The Switzerland-based company on Tuesday reported sales revenue up 5.6% in the three-month period, coming in at 23.5 billion Swiss francs ($26.49 billion), slightly ahead of an analysts’ consensus estimate.

Shares were up 1.27% in morning trade.

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European stock markets were lower shortly after opening on Tuesday, with the benchmark Stoxx 600 index down 0.4%.

France’s CAC 40 fell 0.7%, the U.K.’s FTSE 100 was down 0.4% while Germany’s DAX was narrowly lower.

Banks dropped by 1.66%, as investors digested earnings reports on both sides of the Atlantic, while mining stocks fell 1.4%.

UBS expects to complete its acquisition of Credit Suisse by the end of the quarter, CEO Sergio Ermotti told CNBC in an exclusive interview.

“In the next couple of weeks I will redefine our target operating model for the future,” Ermotti said, along with providing “organizational announcements and clarity.”

“We still believe we’re going to close this transaction by the end of this quarter. I intend to give updates regularly between now and then,” he said.

Ermotti returned to his role last month to oversee the bank’s hastily arranged takeover of embattled rival Credit Suisse.

Discussing the company’s first-quarter results, which showed a steep drop in net profit related to a legacy litigation matter, Ermotti said he was not concerned the bank’s inflows were not higher.

“Even after the transaction we saw inflows, so the demonstration that our clients believe we are a source of stability, we are part of a solution not part of the problem,” he said.

On potential upcoming legal battles with AT1 bondholders and a Credit Suisse dispute with SoftBank, Ermotti said, “Our attitude on litigation was always the same. We reach a settlement, we find solutions where appropriate, and we fight where is appropriate.”

— Jenni Reid

Bill Winters, chief executive of Standard Chartered, says that the recent banking sector turmoil has exposed and exacerbated some underlying issues caused by inflation and high interest rates, adding that there may yet be more issues that “haven’t come home to roost.”

European stock markets are on course for a negative open.

The U.K.’s FTSE 100 was seen opening 24.5 points lower at 7,887.2, according to ig.com data.

Germany’s DAX was set to fall 25 points to 15,835.6, France’s CAC 40 down 12 points to 7,536, and Italy’s MIB down 71 points to 27,276.5.

— Jenni Reid

Short-sellers significantly increased their bets against two European banks amidst a turbulent month for the global banking sector.

Silicon Valley Bank’s failure, partly due to losses on its bond investments, sparked a worldwide search for weakness in banks’ balance sheets. These developments fueled fears of contagion, plummeting shares across the U.S. and Europe.

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— Ganesh Rao

Chinese tech giant ByteDance is pushing another app called Lemon8 as its flagship short-video app TikTok faces a potential ban in the U.S.

“It’s certainly interesting timing. It seems like ByteDance is pushing Lemon8 as a potential alternative to TikTok,” Lindsay Gorman, senior fellow for emerging tech at the German Marshall Fund, told CNBC.

Lemon8 uses similar recommendation algorithms as TikTok which “would make both of those apps tremendously popular because they feed you what you want to see and so on,” said Glenn Gerstell, senior advisor at Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“It might give them a fallback in case something gets hurt on TikTok but I don’t see it as generating a solution for ByteDance in this regard,” said Gerstell.

Read the full story here.

— Sheila Chiang

Though the Federal Reserve policy meeting isn’t taking place until next week, Oppenheimer said the knowledge that it’s on the horizon can add volatility to the market this week.

“This week with earnings season activity ramping up across a broad array of sectors we expect investors’ anticipation of the Federal Reserve’s upcoming FOMC meeting in the first week of May to add to the day to day tone and volatility of the markets,” said John Stoltzfus, the firm’s chief investment strategist.

Many market participants expect the central bank to implement another quarter-percentage point interest rate hike at the next meeting. Investors have been closely watching the Fed amid concerns that its rate hike campaign could now tip the economy into a slowdown or recession.

“A brace of uncertainty remains as an overhang to the markets as to how long the Fed will keep raising rates and whether or not its efforts will push the economy into recession before the current Fed fund hike cycle concludes,” Stoltzfus said.

— Alex Harring