EMEA Morning Briefing : Stocks to Struggle at -2-

CFTC Chief Says Recent Crypto Cases Are 'Tip of the Iceberg'

WASHINGTON-The acting head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Wednesday that he plans to continue aggressively policing cryptocurrency markets and called on Congress to consider expanding his agency's authority to do so.

Rostin Behnam, the CFTC's acting chairman, noted that the agency has settled two enforcement actions against cryptocurrency companies totaling $140 million. "But this is the tip of the iceberg," he said in a confirmation hearing before the Senate Agriculture Committee.

U.K., Canada Lead West in Weaning Economies Off Covid-19 Pandemic Support

LONDON-The U.K. dialed back government stimulus for the fast growing British economy, one of the first big Western economies to step away from the emergency policies put in place to tackle the coronavirus pandemic as concerns over inflation intensify.

Treasury chief Rishi Sunak set new tax and spending policies that together with faster growth are forecast to shrink the U.K.'s budget deficit significantly over the next few years, putting the U.K. in the vanguard of countries reducing fiscal support for their economies as the strong but fitful recovery from the pandemic continues.

U.K. Audit Regulator Says Companies Need to Improve Disclosure on Revenue, Cash Flows

The U.K. audit and accounting regulator said it questioned nearly 100 companies about their reporting in areas including revenue and cash flows and asked 15 of them to restate their accounts as part of an annual review of financial filings.

The Financial Reporting Council on Wednesday said it reviewed the annual reports of 246 British companies, about 39% of which it reached out to for additional information. The percentage is down from the previous year, when the FRC questioned roughly 44% of 216 businesses whose reports it analyzed.

More Travelers Are Heading to Europe in 2022 After the Pandemic Sank Vacation Plans

More travelers are starting to think big about vacations again.

After a long stretch of mainly short-term travel planning, inquiries are picking up for trips well into 2022, according to data from hotels and travel-industry analysts. The booking rates are starting to trend closer to pre-pandemic levels, analysts say.

GlaxoSmithKline Earnings Beat Expectations. The Embattled CEO Says Her Plan Is Working.

Amid an assault from activist investors, GlaxoSmithKline CEO Emma Walmsley announced third-quarter financial results that she said show the company is on the right track.

"I am delighted to announce a quarter of strong financial performance, which shows the actions being taken over the past few years really paying off," Walmsley said on a media call early Wednesday.

Third Point Has Big Shell Stake, Urges Energy Giant to Break Up

Daniel Loeb's Third Point LLC has taken a large stake in Royal Dutch Shell PLC and is urging the oil giant to separate into two companies to retain and attract investors as many flee stocks seen as environmentally unfriendly.

The activist is the latest to pressure a major oil company to change its strategic direction, as the firms face calls to reduce fossil fuel investments and pivot to renewable energy amid concerns about climate change. Upstart hedge fund Engine No. 1 waged a successful campaign to win seats on the board of Exxon Mobil Corp. in May.

Samsung Posts Record Quarterly Revenue From Chip Boom

SEOUL-Samsung Electronics Co. reported record quarterly revenue and saw net profit grow 31% on the back of booming demand for memory chips, though some growth may soon slow as the global component shortage stalls the assembly of various tech products.

The Suwon, South Korea, company posted a third-quarter net profit of 12.29 trillion won, or the equivalent of $10.5 billion, versus 9.36 trillion won a year earlier.

Why Apple's Privacy Changes Hurt Snap and Facebook but Benefited Google

Apple Inc.'s recent privacy crackdown has affected the largest players in online advertising very differently, recent quarterly results show, underscoring the strengths and weaknesses of each tech giant's ad business.

Alphabet Inc.'s Google, the world's largest digital-ad company by revenue, tallied its highest sales growth in more than a decade in the third quarter, while Facebook Inc. and Snap Inc. came up short of expectations and blamed Apple's privacy rules for the slowdown.

Profit Falls at GM and Ford as Chip Shortage Takes Toll

The two largest U.S. auto makers reported steep drops in third-quarter profit as the computer-chip shortage dented factory output, and each said the problem would leave dealership lots nearly bare well into 2022.

Executives from General Motors Co. and rival Ford Motor Co. said the supply-chain disruptions should slowly improve in the fourth quarter and throughout next year, although strong car demand will make it difficult to restock dealership lots.

Hertz Links Up With Uber to Offer 50,000 Tesla Rentals

Hertz Global Holdings Inc. said Wednesday it is linking up with Uber Technologies Inc. to make 50,000 Teslas available in Uber's ride-sharing network by 2023, the latest in the rental-car company's efforts to build momentum postbankruptcy.

The deal comes days after Hertz, which collapsed into bankruptcy at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic last year, said it is making a significant investment in an EV rental fleet, including an initial order of 100,000 Teslas by the end of 2022 and new EV-charging infrastructure across the globe. The company exited Chapter 11 in June and has a stock listing planned for this year.

Write to [e-mail]

Expected Major Events for Thursday

04:30/NED: Oct Producer confidence survey

06:00/NOR: 3Q Labour force survey

06:00/NOR: Aug Labour force survey SA, incl unemployment

06:00/EU: Sep New Commercial Vehicle Registrations in Europe statistics (EU27 + EFTA3)

06:00/NOR: Sep Retail Sales

06:00/DEN: Oct Business tendency survey

07:00/SPN: 3Q Economically Active Population Survey

07:00/SWE: Oct Quarterly Business Tendency Survey

07:00/SWE: Oct Consumer Tendency Survey

07:00/SVK: Sep PPI

07:00/SVK: Oct Business tendency survey

07:00/SVK: Oct Economic sentiment indicator

07:00/HUN: Sep Employment & unemployment

07:00/SPN: Oct Flash Estimate CPI

07:30/SWE: Sep Retail sales

07:30/SWE: 3Q Flash GDP

07:55/GER: Oct Labour market statistics (incl unemployment)

08:00/ICE: Sep Labour Force Survey

08:00/GER: Oct Bavaria CPI

08:00/ITA: Oct Consumer Confidence Survey

08:00/ITA: Oct Business Confidence Survey

08:00/GER: Oct Brandenburg CPI

08:00/GER: Oct Hesse CPI

08:00/GER: Oct Baden-Wuerttemberg CPI

08:30/GER: Oct North Rhine Westphalia CPI

09:00/MLT: Sep PPI

09:00/EU: Oct Business & Consumer Surveys - Business Climate Indicator & Economic Sentiment Indicator

09:00/GER: Oct Saxony CPI

09:30/BEL: Oct CPI

10:00/ITA: Sep PPI

10:00/IRL: Sep Retail Sales Index

11:45/EU: ECB interest rate announcement

12:00/GER: Oct Provisional CPI

13:00/BEL: 3Q Preliminary GDP

23:01/UK: 3Q BRC-LDC Vacancy Monitor

All times in GMT. Powered by Kantar Media and Dow Jones.

Write to us at [e-mail]

We offer an enhanced version of this briefing that is optimized for viewing on mobile devices and sent directly to your email inbox. If you would like to sign up, please go to https://newsplus.wsj.com/subscriptions.

This article is a text version of a Wall Street Journal newsletter published earlier today.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

10-28-21 0029ET