Squawk Box Europe Express

Wall Street rebounded during Monday’s session with strong performances from tech giants Oracle, Broadcomm and Nvidia. Asian equities have followed suit but Europe is set to open flat. Embattled UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to Labour MPs that he will fight on as pressure mounts on him to step down over his appointment of Peter Mandelson as U.S. ambassador. In luxury news, sales of Gucci plunge 10 per cent in Q4. It’s the tenth consecutive quarter of falling revenue for parent company Kering which misses FY forecasts.

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Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi secures a snap election landslide to pave the way for major fiscal spending. Her decisive victory pushed the Nikkei beyond the 57,000-mark for the first time and drove JGB yields higher. In the U.S., beleaguered tech and software stocks rallied on Friday to help the Dow close about 50,000 for the first time ever. Italian lender Unicredit smashes Q4 net profit forecasts and raises its FY 2026 profit guidance. Speaking exclusively to CNBC, CEO Andrea Orcel says his bank has ‘more optionality’ to potential dealmaking than other European rivals.

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The tech rout Stateside looks set to continue into a third day with giants such as Oracle, Palantir and Salesforce all suffering double-digit losses for the week. The gloom is contagious in the crypto space with Bitcoin briefly plunging below the $61,000 mark. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer offers an apology to victims of Jeffrey Epstein for his appointment of Peter Mandelson as U.S. ambassador, despite being aware of his close ties to the late, convicted paedophile. We hear from BoE governor Andrew Bailey who says the upheaval seen in Westminster is being felt globally. And in e-commerce news, Amazon posts its first quarterly miss in more than three years and announces $200bn for capex spending for 2026. Shares plummeted 11 per cent in after-hours trading as a result.  

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The Nasdaq suffers back-to-back losses of more than 1 per cent for the first time since April following a massive tech sell-off that sees almost $1tn wiped from tech stocks as A.I. related concerns reverberate around markets. Alphabet posts FY revenue of more than $400bn for the first time and signals it is prepared to more than double its A.I. investment. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is set upon by Labour backbenchers and forced to release documents about the vetting process of former peer Peter Mandelson for the post of U.S. ambassador and his links to the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.  

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UBS posts quarterly profit of $1.2bn and hikes its dividend by 22 per cent and reaffirms its forecasts for the year. The Swiss lender says it is on track to fully integrate Credit Suisse later this year but CEO Sergio Ermotti says clients remain wary due to geo-political considerations. Pharma giant Novo Nordisk sees U.S.-listed shares plunge after warning of disappointing sales due to competition to its flagship obesity drugs. CEO Mike Doustdar believes the GLP-1 market will only get bigger. And in tech news, Anthropic’s new ‘Claude’ model causes a wider sell-off in enterprise and cloud software as the threat of A.I. disruption looms over white-collar sectors.  

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Global equity markets bounce back with South Korea’s KOSPI notching its best session in almost six years and the Nikkei closing at a record high. Metals prices also stabilise and claw back some of the losses from a two-day rout. The U.S. moves to slash tariffs on New Delhi from 50 to 18 per cent, nudging Indian assets higher. President Trump says the country has now agreed to halt all purchases of Russian oil. In France, lawmakers finally agree on a budget following four months of intense wrangling. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu hailed the agreement after gaining support from the Socialist party through a slew of concessions and defeating a vote of no confidence at the Assemblée Nationale.

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Gold and silver spot prices continue to plunge following Friday’s rout which saw the worst one-day decline since 1980 as investors digest President Trump’s decision to nominate Kevin Warsh as Federal Reserve Chairman. Crude prices ease back from multi-month highs after Trump says the Iranian regime is engaging in “serious” talks with Washington to avert U.S. military strikes and to strike a deal on its nuclear programme. In Asia, equities kick off the new week deep in the red. South Korea’s KOSPI leads the regions losses and has triggered brief pause in trading. And the U.S. government enters a partial shutdown despite a late Senate deal on DHS funding. House Speaker Mike Johnson says the House will vote by the end of tomorrow.  

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European equities are set to open in the green but Stateside futures are expected to lose ground ahead of President Trump’s eagerly anticipated announcement of a new Federal reserve chairman. Former Fed governor Kevin Warsh is now reportedly the frontrunner for the job. Apple enjoys a bumper quarter on the back of strong iPhone sales but the share price stutters on continued concerns about the company’s demand forecast and AI strategy. UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer attends a business leaders’ event on the final day of his landmark visit to China as President Trump warns about deeper engagement with the country. And in retail news, German sporting giant Adidas posts record sales and more than doubles operational profits in the fourth quarter.

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Tesla suffers a fall in its annual vehicle sales for the first time in its history but shares are still in the green as the auto maker posts a beat on earnings. Tesla has also announced it will be axing its S and X models as it moves to increasingly produce humanoid robots. German lender Deutsche Bank enjoys record FY and Q4 earnings. We speak to CFO James Von Molke who says U.S. economic strength will help bolster the world’s economy. SAP posts Q4 sales results in line with expectations and says its cloud revenues are set to surge by up to 25 per cent this year.  

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The U.S. dollar whipsaws and falls to a four-year low against a basket of currencies following comments from President Trump that he remained sanguine about the greenback’s recent slide. All eyes are on today’s Fed rate decision as investors ponder who will replace outgoing Chairman Jerome Powell. Chip maker ASML beats on Q4 booking and ups its forecast ahead of expectations on the back of encouraging A.I. demand. And in luxury news, LVMH defies expectations to post a 1 per cent rise in sales. This was offset by FY operating profit which fell by almost10 per cent.  

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