A dozen European indexes are outperforming the Nasdaq as of May 8. The podium is occupied by the Danish OMX (+16.4%), the Dutch AEX (+14.4%) and the Italian FTSE MIB (+12.8%). The first two benefited from the breathtaking performances of their respective stars. The king of anti-obesity treatments and Europe's largest capitalization Novo Nordisk for Copenhagen, and the ogre of semiconductor manufacturing machines and Europe's third-largest capitalization ASML for Amsterdam. The Milan index, meanwhile, benefited from the enormous upward thrust of its vast banking compartment, notably from the 36% rise in Intesa and 46% rise in Unicredit, the country's two biggest institutions, which are now the 5th and 6th most highly valued banks in Europe. Behind the leading trio, three national indexes are up by more than 10% in 2024: the Greek FTSE ATHEX, the Polish WIG and the German DAX.

The good performance of the European stock market is summed up in the Euro Stoxx 50, the index of the continent's very large caps, which posted 11% growth in 2024. By way of comparison, the S&P500 is up 8.8% since January 1. 

The US market stuttered yesterday, ending at equilibrium. The S&P500 managed to claw back 0.13% despite a rare 9.5% plunge in Walt Disney shares. The father of Mickey presented results and prospects that were difficult to analyze. The market likes neither lack of visibility nor inconsistency. Disney paid for both. The other thing that was talked about a lot yesterday in the United States was the speech by Minneapolis Fed boss Neel Kashkari. For those who don't know him, Neel is a character who is rather on the right in the Fed's class photo, where the bankers are lined up in order, the most flexible on the left. He is a member of the hawkish clan, supporters of orthodox monetary policy. Yesterday, he hinted that the central bank may have to leave rates unchanged all year. So, unsurprisingly, he's playing his part, which didn't stop the dollar from tensing up a little after his remarks. Several of his colleagues are due to give speeches today.

Apart from that, the market continued to welcome contrasting quarterly corporate results. Investors are giving them a little less weight than those of previous weeks, because they have already formed an opinion on the overall trend. One big missing at this stage is Nvidia. Historically, the company has always published a month after the others and continues to do so, even now that all eyes are on it. I'd say this is even more the case now that it publishes outside the avalanche of announcements from other companies. In short, Nvidia's 1st-quarter accounts are due on May 22. The group is now the world's 3rd largest capitalization, behind Apple but ahead of Alphabet and Amazon. But it is also the catalyst for the hopes placed in artificial intelligence, and therefore a powerful vector for stock market mood.

Oil eased a little despite fears over the continuation of Israeli operations in Rafah. The United States has reportedly suspended a shipment of bombs to its ally, in protest. On a completely different note, Washington revoked a number of licenses authorizing American companies to sell chips to Huawei. This is the latest manifestation of Sino-American tensions over technology. We're keeping the same protagonists but changing direction: ByteDance has decided to challenge the so-called "anti-TikTok" law in the US courts. 

In the Asia-Pacific region, Taiwan and South Korea managed to claw back 0.2% this morning, but the other markets were more or less in the red. Japan's Nikkei 225 lost 1.5%, while Chinese markets were also down. Shanghai is down 0.4% and Hong Kong 0.5%. India is down 0.4%. Australia failed to come within a few points of equilibrium.

Economic highlights of the day:

Two US stock reports: wholesale inventories (10:00am) and oil inventories (10:30am). Full agenda here.

The dollar is up to 0.9306 EUR and 0.801 GBP. The ounce of gold is little changed at 2315 USD. Oil loses a little ground, with North Sea Brent at 82.12 USD a barrel and US light crude WTI at 77.18 USD. The yield on 10-year US debt falls to 4.47%. Bitcoin is trading at 62,400 USD.

In corporate news:

  • Semiconductors - The United States has revoked licenses that allowed companies like Intel and Qualcomm to export chips to the sanctioned Chinese manufacturer Huawei Technologies.
  • Uber is down 8.7% in pre-market trading after disappointing first-quarter bookings and second-quarter booking forecasts.
  • iPhone deliveries from Apple in China increased by 12% in March, boosted by price cuts.
  • Meta Platforms announced on Tuesday that it would expand its suite of generative AI advertising products to offer tools capable of automatically creating image variations and overlaying text.
  • The European Commission stated on Wednesday that it had requested information from the social network X about the reduction in resources allocated to content moderation, under the Digital Services Act.
  • Occidental Petroleum reported earnings above consensus on Tuesday, with the oil and gas company benefiting from higher oil production.
  • Boeing - A plane built by the group landed without using its front landing gear on Wednesday at Istanbul Airport, the Turkish Ministry of Transport said.
  • Pfizer - A young patient died of cardiac arrest after receiving the group's experimental gene therapy for the muscle disease known as Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
  • Arista Network is up 7.5% in pre-market trading after the cloud services specialist announced on Tuesday that it expects first-quarter sales to exceed expectations.
  • International Paper - The Brazilian company Suzano has expressed interest in an all-cash acquisition of nearly $15 billion.
  • Rivian Automotive released first-quarter revenue on Tuesday that exceeded consensus and reiterated its production forecast of 57,000 vehicles this year, due to sustained demand for its electric cars.
  • Electronic Arts - The video game publisher reported annual revenue on Tuesday that fell short of Wall Street estimates, due to weak spending on its flagship titles.
  • Match, parent company of Tinder, announced on Tuesday that it expects second-quarter revenue to be below Wall Street estimates, with users reducing spending on dating apps.
  • Lyft - The transportation company announced it expects higher than anticipated gross bookings and operating profit for the current quarter, thanks to robust demand for its services.
  • Reddit reported quarterly revenue above consensus, driven by strong user growth and an uptick in the advertising market.
  • Old Dominion Freight Line - Baird has upgraded its recommendation to "outperform" from "neutral".

Analyst recommendations:

    • Ares Management: Autonomous Research maintains its neutral recommendation and raises the target price from USD 124 to USD 129.
    • Arista Networks: Barclays maintains its overweight recommendation and raises the target price from USD 311 to USD 320.
    • Bentley Systems: Goldman Sachs maintains its neutral recommendation with a price target raised from USD 53 to USD 57.
    • Builders Firstsource: Zelman & Associates LLC maintains its outperform recommendation and reduces the target price from USD 255 to USD 228.
    • CVS Health: Argus Research Company maintains its buy recommendation and reduces the target price from USD 100 to USD 80.
    • Duke Energy: Wells Fargo maintains its overweight recommendation and raises the target price from USD 100 to USD 110.
    • Electronic Arts: BMO Capital Markets maintains its outperform recommendation and reduces the target price from USD 160 to USD 154.
    • KKR: Autonomous Research maintains its neutral recommendation and raises the target price from USD 100 to USD 101.
    • Motorola Solutions: Argus Research Company maintains its buy recommendation and raises the target price from USD 380 to USD 410.
    • Occidental Petroleum: Stephens maintains its overweight recommendation and raises the target price from USD 77 to USD 78.
    • Raymond James Financial: Argus Research Company maintains its buy recommendation and raises the target price from USD 126 to USD 136.
    • Rivian Automotive: D.A. Davidson maintains its neutral recommendation with a price target reduced from USD 17 to USD 12.
    • The Clorox Company: Bernstein maintains its market perform recommendation and reduces the target price from 162 to USD 155.
    • Tractor Supply Company: NorthCoast Research maintains its buy recommendation with a price target raised from USD 265 to USD 300.
    • Transdigm Group: Stifel maintains its hold recommendation with a price target raised from USD 1200 to USD 1300.
    • Walt Disney Company (The) : Rosenblatt Securities Inc. maintains its buy recommendation and reduces the target price from USD 137 to USD 130.
    • Welltower: Mizuho Securities maintains its buy recommendation and raises the target price from USD 98 to USD 105.