Squawk Box Europe Express

There’s a new record high for the S&P 500 index – its 16th this year. In a testimony to the Senate, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank was gaining the confidence it needs to cut rates. In Frankfurt, the ECB keeps rates on hold but signals a mid-year cut with President Christine Lagarde calling for more data by June. President Biden lashes out at former President...

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reiterates to the House Financial Services Committee that the central bank is not yet ready to begin slashing interest rates. Powell said he required more data to be confident inflation would continue falling before dialling back on restrictive policy. Chinese trade numbers beat expectations for the first two months of 2024. Foreign Minster Wang Yi has h...

Former U.S. President Donald Trump dominates the GOP Super Tuesday races. NBC News projects he has won almost all of the 15 states voting in the primary contest. Wall Street stumbles for a second straight day with tech stocks weighing. The Dow is down ahead of Federal reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s testimony on Capitol Hill. We are live in Westminster ahead of Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s UK budget...

We are live in Beijing at China’s annual parliamentary session where the country has set a growth target of ‘around 5 per cent’ for 2024. Premier Li Qiang has sought to diffuse economic tensions but warned of a tricky path ahead. Tesla sees Chinese sales fall to the their lowest level since December 2022, with increased domestic competition as well as a slowdown in demand weighing on the EV maker....

China hosts its annual legislative sessions with an aim to deepening economic reform. Beijing is grappling with the four issues of deflation, demographics, debt and de-risking. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 hits the 40,000-point level for the first time on the back of strong tech stock performance. Stateside, the Nasdaq, Dow and S&P 500 also hit fresh highs. Hamas delegates are in Egypt hoping to n...

The recent optimism around A.I. helps push the Nasdaq to its first record high in more than 2 years. The Dow and S&P 500 also mark their best start to the year since 2019. Consumer prices Stateside are their slowest rate of increase in six years, raising hopes of a June rate cut. In banking news, shares of NY Community Bancorp plunge by 20 per cent in extended trade on the news that the lender...

U.S. markets are set to notch their fourth monthly gain but investors turn wary on tech stocks ahead of today’s inflation data. There is a tentative deal on Capitol Hill as lawmakers scramble to avert a government shutdown. Long-serving Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has announced he will be stepping down from his position after the U.S. election this November. Chinese equities rebound s...

Global markets toe the line ahead of key inflation data coming out of the U.S. The recent troubles experienced by Boeing have sent U.S. durable goods orders to their steepest monthly fall since April 2020. In U.S. politics, President Biden wins the Democratic primary in Michigan while former President Donald Trump easily notches his fifth state victory ahead of Super Tuesday. Following President M...

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has played down suggestions that the U.S. economy may still enjoy a soft landing, saying investor optimism is mis-placed. With A.I. dominating the agenda at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, we hear from Microsoft President Brad Smith who says the new technology is transformative and here to stay. In Japan, January inflation slowed which affected the BoJ’s 2 pe...

We are live at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona where A.I. is dominating the agenda. Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Höttges tells CNBC that Europe is lagging in the digital world. Berkshire Hathaway posts a record 28 per cent jump in Q4 earnings bringing the company’s cash pile to $167bn but CEO Warren Buffett warns that a repeat performance in coming years is not guaranteed. Donald Trump comforta...

Chip maker Nvidia adds $277bn to its market cap in one session, smashing the previous added value record high and prompting stock market highs across three continents. Asia-focused bank Standard Chartered posts an 18 per cent surge in FY pre-tax profit. It is due to offer a $1bn share buy-back and a large increase to its dividend. Reddit may list in New York in the next few weeks, becoming Wall St...

Nvidia shares pop in after-hours trade after the chip giant posted a 265 per cent surge in Q4 revenue. CEO Jensen Huang tells CNBC that conditions are ideal to grow the company. As a result the chip sector rallies, pushing Japan’s Nikkei to levels not seen since 1989. The Fed urges caution in cutting rates too early. BofA CEO Brian Moynihan says the central bank should not repeat mistakes of the p...

HSBC shares dip in Hong Kong despite the lender posting a record FY profit. The result was marred by a write-down on its share of Chinese bank BOCOM. HSBC CEO Noel Quinn tells CNBC he is still upbeat on the country’s economy. Chinese indices claw back earlier losses after the market regulator said it would increase supervision while the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses crack down on a key quant fund....

The PBOC makes its biggest ever cut to the country’s benchmark mortgage rate as authorities look to shore up the beleaguered Chinese property sector. In banking news, Capital One strikes a $35bn deal to snap up credit card issuer Discover Financial – the largest acquisition so far this year. German industrial giant Bayer slashes its dividend by 95 per cent to the lowest legal level in a bid to dra...

We are live at the Munich Security Conference where the death of Alexei Navalny on Friday and dwindling Ukrainian military supplies against Russia have dominated discussions over the weekend. We hear from NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg who says he does not believe a potential Trump administration would abandon the alliance. Russian forces re-take the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka – i...

The S&P 500 achieves a fresh record high for the eleventh time this year – this as U.S. consumer spending in January falls more than expected in what could be an early warning sign for the American economy. In Japan, the Nikkei moves close to levels not seen since 1989. Crypto exchange Coinbase sees shares surge more than 14 per cent in extended trade. CFO Alesia Haas told our colleagues State...

Renault enjoys a FY operating margin on revenue of more than €50bn and is set to hike its dividend. French aviation giant Airbus sees full-year results surging on the back of a record orderbook and is also due to propose a special dividend payout. On Wall Street, the S&P 500 is back up at the 5,000-point mark as chip maker Nvidia briefly overtook Alphabet on market cap value. Meanwhile Berkshi...

U.S. inflation for January disappointed, coming in at more than 3 per cent on an annual basis dashing any hopes of an imminent Federal Reserve rate cut. The markets reacted with the Dow posting its worst session since last March and Treasury yields spiked. DoubleLine CEO Jeffrey Gundlach told our colleagues Stateside that markets had vastly overestimated this year’s rate path. Ride-hailing app Lyf...

The Dow hits a new record ahead of today’s inflation report Stateside. The CPI growth has been seen below 3 per cent, which would be a first in three years. The CEO of Abu Dhabi’s SWF Mubadala, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, tells CNBC that the U.S. remains an attractive investment destination. ARM shares are up by almost 30 per cent, extending the post-earnings rally, which boosts one of its primary stakeh...

Wall Street posts its fifth-straight week in the green with the S&P 500 breaching the 5,000-point mark for the first time. We hear exclusively from IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva who warns about the need for China to introduce economic reforms and stabilise its property sector. NATO leaders baulk at comments made by former President Donald Trump saying he would not support allies w...

The S&P 500 posts its ninth record session this year, briefly breaching the 5,000-point milestone. Similarly in Asia, the Nikkei hits 37k for the first time in 34 years before pulling back while Hong Kong equities are in the red at the start of the Lunar New Year. Disappointing sales for L’Oréal as northern Asian markets slump, with the French cosmetics posting a miss on sales and profits. In...

German engineering giant Siemens posts a 56 per cent rise in Q net income and boasts an order book of more than €22bn. CEO Roland Busch says the China market remains a concern. Shares in chip maker ARM are up 40 per cent in after-hours trade after the firm hiked guidance on strong A.I. demand. ARM’s major shareholder Softbank also posts a $16bn gain in earnings. Disney hikes its forecast and annou...

Moody’s cuts its rating on New York Community Bankcorp to junk status, causing its shares to nose-dive to their lowest level since 1997. However, the U.S. regional lender remains adamant, saying ‘ample’ liquidity of more than $37bn. Snap shares fall by more than 30 per cent in extended trade after missing earnings expectations in the fourth quarter. The company says that the Middle East turmoil is...

UBS posts a better-than-expected Q4 net loss of $279m. U.S. markets are in the red as the 2-years Treasury yield reaches a one-month high as strong services numbers pushes back expectations of an early Fed rate cut. In China, authorities move to mitigate a slump in the stock market helping both the Hong Kong and Shenzhen indices up. In pharma news, Novartis buys up cancer treatment firm MorphoSys...