Squawk Box Europe Express

We are live in Glasgow, Rome and London ahead of the landmark COP26 summit. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson says humanity must not flinch in the face of the climate change. However, U.S. President Joe Biden voiced disappointment at the slow progress seen during the G20 in Rome and lashed out at the lack of climate commitment from China, Russia and Saudi Arabia. Washington and Brussels agree on lifting steel and aluminium tariffs while Italian PM Mario Draghi tells CNBC he has high hopes for a return to multilateralism. And in Asia, markets are broadly higher. The Nikkei is leading gains as Japan’s ruling LDP maintains its majority in parliament.

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Apple fails to beat quarterly earnings expectations for the first time in 5 years. Despite Q3 revenue jumping by nearly 30 per cent, the tech giant has felt supply chain bottlenecks bite on phone and computer sales. Amazon also misses forecasts as the pandemic-era e-commerce effect begins to wane and consumers start switching back to physical stores. Its outlook for the Christmas period ahead also disappointed. Facebook has announced a rebranding, now calling itself Meta. The social media company looks to focus on a new vision for the internet. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg hopes to move on from recent scandals. In the U.S., the S&P 500 hits a new record high as investors ignore weak GDP growth data. The Nasdaq also hits an all-time peak. And, we hear from BNP Paribas CFO Lars Machenil who says the French lender is well positioned for continued gains after posting a near-5 per cent rise in Q3 revenues.   

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Airbus boosts its FY guidance as profits dip less than forecast on the back of pandemic belt-tightening. Shell faces activist investor ire as hedge fund Third Point reportedly builds a $750m stake and demands a break-up of the company’s assets. In Canada, the central bank ditches its Covid-era bond-buying programme while European markets await today’s ECB rate decision. We also have a slew of Q3 earnings on Super Thursday with C-suite interviews from Skanska, WPP, Volkswagen and more.  

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Google parent Alphabet posts record Q3 profits on the back of strong advertising sales, but its shares trade lower in extended hours despite the company shrugging off any perceived impact from Apple’s iOS changes. Microsoft also beats expectations on strong cloud performance – its best quarterly sales growth in 3 years. Meanwhile, Chinese industry reports booming profit growth in the face of supply chain bottlenecks, high raw material costs and power rationing. Meanwhile in Washington, Democrats announce plans over a new wealth tax against the country’s richest companies while they wrangle over funding for President Biden’s ‘Build Back Better’ plan. 

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Swiss lender UBS smashes Q3 forecasts, with pre-tax profit surging by more than 30 per cent. Facebook earnings top expectations and the company increases its share buyback programme, but the numbers are overshadowed by whistleblower Frances Haugen’s testimony to UK lawmakers in which she accused the social media giant of political bias and putting profits over online user safety. Facebook has hit back at the allegations. Tesla breaks through the $1tn market valuation ceiling after car hire Hertz company orders 100k vehicles. The deal prompts shares to soar, adding $36bn to CEO Elon Musk’s personal fortune.  

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Europe’s largest lender, HSBC, posts stellar Q3 results with a 74 per cent surge in profits and announces a £2bn share buyback programme. CFO Ewen Stevenson tells CNBC the bank is well positioned for any interest rate hikes. Meanwhile, Italy’s attempts to save distressed lender BMPS takes a hit after discussions between Unicredit and the state treasury collapse. Evergrande sees shares spike for its EV unit after the Chinese developer’s chairman hints at a move away from property. And Facebook’s woes continue ahead of earnings today. Whistleblower Frances Haugen is due to provide further testimony about online safety at the social media giant in London today.

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The S&P 500 closes at a record high – the seventh consecutive day in the green – boosted by Tesla’s performance. However, IBM shares close nearly 10 per cent lower, pushing the Dow to close lower on the day. In China, property giant Evergrande has reportedly paid a key interest payment, bumping shares higher and raising hopes in the sector that the company can avoid a default. European corporates continue their latest earning disclosures. L’Oréal reports higher Q3 performance on strong demand for luxury beauty products. On Wall St., Snap shares are down by more than 20 per cent with the social media site blaming Apple’s recent privacy changes for disrupting its advertising business. And EU leaders meet in Brussels where many criticise Poland over its stance on EU law, but Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki says Warsaw will not accept ‘blackmail’ from the bloc.   

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Strong U.S. earnings push the Dow to a new intra-day high, while Bitcoin hits its own record. Tesla shares sink in extended trade after the EV maker issues a warning about supply chain problems affecting margins. In France, retail giant Carrefour holds its FY cashflow outlook steady despite taking a hit from Covid restrictions. And Swiss-Swedish robotics and automation giant ABB cuts guidance, as earnings miss forecasts.

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U.S. indices are firmly in the green with the S&P 500 posting a fifth consecutive day of gains, boosted by positive Q3 earnings. Asian equities have followed suit. Netflix announces that Squid Games has become its biggest TV show ever, pushing the streaming giant’s latest earnings ahead of forecasts. Meanwhile, the first ever Bitcoin futures ETF gains on its first day of trading, pushing the cryptocurrency towards its all-time high. In luxury news, however, Gucci posts a miss as new Covid outbreaks in Asia outbreaks hamper sales, but parent company Kering Group sees like-for-like sales jump by 12 per cent to beat expectations.

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The S&P 500 is in the green for the fourth day running ahead of key U.S. earnings. Industrial production Stateside, however, slumps to a more than six-month low. Alibaba’s Hong Kong shares trade higher following the launch of a new server chip for its cloud unit which could directly compete with Amazon and Microsoft. And Apple shares jump as investor’s cheer the tech giant’s newly launched Air Pods and MacBooks powered by its in-house semi-conductors, further breaking away from Intel. We are also live at the UK Global Investment Summit in London where Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due to announce almost £10bn of UK business commitments in an attempt to attract investors from around the world after Brexit and the Covid pandemic.

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