Stocks on the move: Chr. Hansen up 13%, Philips down 9%
Shares of Danish bioscience company Chr. Hansen jumped more than 13% by mid-afternoon, after a robust quarterly earnings report and promising outlook.
At the bottom of the Stoxx 600, Philips shares slumped more than 9% after the Dutch health tech firm issued a third-quarter profit warning and highlighted a 1.3 million euro ($1.26 billion) charge for its embattled sleep and respiratory care business.
UK gilt market chaos rattles euro zone bonds
The turmoil in U.K. gilt markets spilled over into the euro zone on Wednesday, with euro zone government bond yields rising sharply after the Bank of England confirmed the end of its emergency bond-buying program on Friday.
The 10-year German bund yield was up 8 basis points to 2.3880% during afternoon trade in Europe, having earlier notched its highest point in more than a decade, while Italian 10-year BTP yields also jumped. Yields move inversely to prices.
U.K. 30-year gilt yields were up by around 16 basis points at 4.963% while the 10-year yield was up by more than 9 basis points at 4.533%.
– Elliot Smith
The Bank of England needs to keep the gilt market operating properly, says economist
Samy Chaar of Lombard Odier says “it’s very easy to say that pension funds have to get their act together,” but they would need a functioning gilt market with liquidity to do so.
Stocks on the move: Chr. Hansen up 11%, Philips down 11%
Shares of Danish bioscience company Chr. Hansen jumped more than 11% in early trade after a robust quarterly earnings report and promising outlook.
At the bottom of the Stoxx 600, Philips shares slumped more than 11% after the Dutch health tech firm issued a third-quarter profit warning and highlighted a 1.3 million euro ($1.26 billion) charge for its embattled sleep and respiratory care business.
– Elliot Smith
British pound whipsaws after mixed messages from the Bank of England
UK economy shrinks by 0.3% in August
U.K. GDP contracted by 0.3% month-on-month in August, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday, below expectations for stagnation from a Reuters poll of economists.
The fall in activity was driven partly by manufacturing weakness and maintenance work on North Sea oil and gas facilities, the ONS said, while both production and services activity fell.
July GDP growth was revised down to 0.1% from a previous estimate of 0.2%.
“While this figure is not what the country wants to see, it won’t make much of a difference to the path we are already on. The Bank of England (BoE) will continue to increase its base rate at it battles to tame runaway inflation,” said Marcus Brookes, chief investment officer at Quilter Investors.
“The BoE continues to face the incredibly difficult task of guiding the country through this uncertain period where it finds itself in a rock and a hard place by raising rates to meet inflation but embarking on a gilt buying operation to help steady the markets following the turmoil precipitated by the mini budget.”
– Elliot Smith
CNBC Pro: It’s too early to buy the dip, investor says, naming 8 stocks to buy when the time is right
One fund manager is cautioning against buying the dip, despite a 25% decline in the S&P 500 this year.
Instead, investors should be repositioning toward stocks sensitive to interest rates, John Ricciardi, head of asset allocation and a fund manager at Deuterium Capital, said.
He names three stocks in the consumer staples sectors, three in utilities, and two in materials for investors to scoop up when the time is right.
U.S. economy is doing well amid economic uncertainty, says Treasury Secretary Yellen
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the U.S. is “doing very well” amid global economic uncertainty.
Although the U.S. economy has slowed after a strong recovery, jobs reports indicate a resilient economy, she said in an interview Tuesday with CNBC’s Sara Eisen.
She also acknowledged that inflation is too high and that lowering it is a priority for the Biden administration, and emphasized the importance of maintaining a healthy labor market while doing so.
— Chelsey Cox, Tanaya Macheel
IMF cuts global growth forecast for next year
CNBC Pro: This stock is a better bet than even U.S. Treasurys, fund manager says
Nick Griffin, chief investment officer at Munro Partners, is so bullish on one stock, he says it’s a better bet than U.S. Treasurys.
“It’s cheaper than a U.S. Treasury. It grows faster than the U.S. Treasury, and it’s probably got a better balance sheet than the U.S. Treasury. So from our point of view, it’s a fairly safe place to [put your] cash,” he said. Short-term U.S. Treasurys have surged in popularity among investors of late as yields pop.
CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.
— Weizhen Tan
European markets: Here are the opening calls
European markets are heading for a lower open on Wednesday with global growth concerns dominating sentiment and investors looking ahead to Thursday’s inflation data out of the U.S.
The U.K.’s FTSE index is expected to open 22 points lower at 6,867, the German DAX down 56 points at 12,148, France’s CAC down 27 points at 5,799 and Italy’s FTSE MIB down 127 points at 20,511, according to data from IG.
On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund cut its global growth forecast for next year to 2.7%. The prediction is 0.2 percentage points lower than its July forecast, and suggests that 2023 will feel like a recession for millions around the world.
European markets closed lower on Tuesday with all major bourses and the majority of sectors ending the trading session in the red. The region’s markets have suffered consecutive losing days as volatility continues to rattle sentiment.
The Bank of England intervened again to restore order to U.K. markets on Tuesday, with volatility in long-dated government bonds posing what it called a “material risk to U.K. financial stability.”
— Holly Ellyatt
