EUROPEAN MIDDAY BRIEFING - Stocks Drop as Traders -2-

Societe Generale SA is betting on the sharing economy and the shift to electric vehicles as it aims to make its vehicle-leasing subsidiary ALD SA a core pillar of its business, the French bank said Thursday, setting out a merger between ALD and peer LeasePlan.

Under the agreement with LeasePlan's current owners, a consortium led by London-based TDR Capital, ALD will acquire 100% of the company in a cash-and-share deal totaling 4.9 billion euros ($5.54 billion), SocGen said.

German Manufacturing Orders Rose in November, Beating Forecasts

German manufacturing orders increased in November, beating expectations amid continuing supply-chain disruptions.

Manufacturing orders rose 3.7% on month in November in adjusted terms, following a revised 5.8% drop in October, according to data from federal statistics office Destatis released Thursday.

Next PLC Raises FY 2022 Guidance, Sees Further Profit Growth in FY 2023

Next PLC on Thursday raised guidance for the financial year ending in January, and said its profits will increase further in fiscal 2023.

The London-listed fashion retailer now expects to achieve a pretax profit of 822 million pounds ($1.11 billion) for fiscal 2022 compared with previous guidance of GBP800 million. This would be up from GBP729 million in fiscal 2020, before the pandemic, and from GBP342 million in fiscal 2021.

Sodexo 1Q Revenue Rose; Backs FY 2022 Outlook

Sodexo SA said Thursday that revenue jumped in the first quarter of its fiscal year 2022, while it backed its guidance for the full year despite Covid-19-related restrictions weighing on its activities.

The French food-services and facilities company said revenue in the period stood at 5.26 billion euros ($5.95 billion), up from EUR4.43 billion.

U.K. New Car Registrations in 2021 Remain Well Below Pre-Pandemic Levels

U.K. car registrations rose just 1.0% on-year in 2021, stubbornly remaining 29% below pre-pandemic levels as a number of challenges keeps the market subdued, an industry body said Thursday.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders reported that registrations of new vehicles fell to 1.65 million, underlining the continued effects of the coronavirus pandemic and the shortage of semiconductors, and marking the second worst year since 1992.

Dozens Killed as Kazakhstan Cracks Down on Protest

MOSCOW-Dozens of people were killed in Kazakhstan on Thursday as authorities moved against protesters in the Central Asian nation after several days of unrest and an alliance of troops from former Soviet states arrived to support local forces.

Russian news agency TASS reported that dozens of attackers were killed as they stormed administrative buildings and the police department in Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest city.

Russia-Led Force to Help Quell Kazakhstan Unrest

MOSCOW-Mass protests in Kazakhstan over an increase in fuel prices have prompted an alliance of former Soviet states to send troops to help support the country's president after the government of the Central Asian nation resigned and the leader imposed a state of emergency.

The Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Russian-led intergovernmental military alliance, would send peacekeeping forces to Kazakhstan "in view of the threat to national security...caused [among other things] by outside interference," Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, the chair of the alliance's Collective Security Council, wrote Thursday in a statement on Facebook that was also posted on the Kremlin's website.

Natural-Gas Crisis Pushes German Utilities Into Dash for Cash

European energy companies are racing to secure billions of euros in funds, a sign of the financial strains caused by dramatic moves in natural-gas and power prices this winter.

Uniper SE, one of Europe's largest energy companies, in recent weeks agreed to credit lines for EUR10 billion, equivalent to $11.3 billion, from its parent company and Germany's state-owned lender. The utility, which generates electricity across Europe and trades gas around the world, also has tapped an existing EUR1.8 billion credit facility with banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

CDC Recommends First Covid-19 Boosters for 12- to 15-Year-Olds

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended Covid-19 boosters for 12- to 15-year-olds, making the doses available to the adolescents for the first time.

With the move Wednesday, many doctor's offices, schools and other vaccination sites will make booster shots from Pfizer Inc. and partner BioNTech SE available to 12- to 15-year-olds.

GLOBAL NEWS

Derby's Take: Fed Minutes Flag Importance of Money Markets for Policy Shift

Money-market conditions were very much on the minds of Federal Reserve officials at their meeting last month as they began debating how quickly to withdraw monetary policy stimulus for the U.S. economy.

According to minutes of the mid-December gathering, officials believe they can likely draw down the size of the Fed's $8.8 trillion balance sheet sooner and more quickly after starting to raise interest rates than they did between 2017 and 2019, the last time the central bank worked to reduce the size of its holdings.

Jobless Claims Hold Near Historic Lows in Tight Labor Market

The number of people filing for unemployment benefits is estimated to have held near five-decade lows last week as firms struggle to remain fully staffed amid a resurgent pandemic.

Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expect Thursday's Labor Department report to show initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, totaled a seasonally adjusted 195,000 for the week that ended Jan. 1. That would keep the four-week average for claims, which smooths out volatility, near last month's level, the lowest since 1969. The claims data will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Consumer Demand for Goods Likely Drove U.S. Import Surge During Holidays

U.S. consumer demand for goods and an easing of supply-chain constraints likely drove a surge in imports in November, pushing the trade deficit to a record.

Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal estimate that the U.S. trade deficit widened in November to $81.5 billion. Backlogs at U.S. ports showed signs of easing in the fall, helping boost imports, while consumer spending was solid early in the holiday shopping season.

China Services Activity Improved in December

A private gauge of China's services sector rebounded at the end of 2021 after falling in November, as both supply and demand improved.

The Caixin China services purchasing managers index increased to 53.1 in December from 52.1 in November, Caixin Media Co. and research company IHS Markit said Thursday.

Biden Steps Up Vaccine Push as U.S. Cases Surpass Records

President Biden stepped up his vaccination push as cases reported in the U.S. rose to new records, saying unvaccinated people would suffer the worst of the Omicron-driven surge in infections.

The development came as the U.K. national statistics agency estimated Wednesday that one-in-15 people in England had Covid-19 in the last week of December. The government there said it would try to ride out a record wave of infections without further restrictions. Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macronlashed out at unvaccinated people.

North Korea Says It Tested Hypersonic Missile

SEOUL-North Korea said it hit a target with a hypersonic missile, as the country seeks to put itself in the small club of countries developing the technology.

Pyongyang made that claim in state media on Thursday a day after the launch, which was its first weapons test since October.

Anger at Xi'an Lockdown Spreads in China

Authorities in the Chinese city of Xi'an relented in some of their pandemic restrictions after a nationwide outcry over the account of a woman who lost her unborn baby in the eighth month of pregnancy after being denied medical attention for hours.

For two weeks, the city's 13 million residents have been confined to their homes in response to an outbreak in which about 1,800 people have been diagnosed with Covid-19, a big outbreak for China. Most of Xi'an's cases have been mild, authorities say, and no one has died of the virus. Still, the city has closed most public services in measures similar to those in Wuhan, the first epicenter of the coronavirus, two years ago. Only a limited number of Xi'an's hospitals have been open to non-Covid-19 patients.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-06-22 0601ET