Squawk Box Europe Express

U.S equities close sharply lower as Meta breaks a one-day record for market cap loss with more than $230bn wiped from its value. However, U.S. futures are buoyed by strong earnings from Amazon and Snap. Tensions are still high in Ukraine and the White House claims Russia is planning a ‘false flag’ incident to force a pretext to invade the country. We hear from Julianne Smith, U.S. ambassador to NA...

Meta suffers a share wipe-out in extended trade with $210bn disappearing from its market cap. It’s the largest quarterly miss for the company formerly known as Facebook and has caused Nasdaq futures to slide by more than 300 points. The Nikkei also turns red. Streaming platform Spotify plunges despite a beat on the top and bottom line on weak predicted subscription numbers. We are also live at the...

Google parent company Alphabet posts a big Q4 profit beat and launches a 20-for-1 stock split. We have a slew of European corporate earnings today, too. Spanish lender Santander records more than €2bn in quarterly profits on strong customer growth and Julius Baer reports a record-breaking full year. Swiss pharma giant Novartis is courted by a number of private equity suitors keen on its generic dr...

UBS overcomes higher litigation costs, reporting a 14 per cent rise in full-year net profit. The Swiss lender launched a new set of ambitious targets to capitalise on recent performance and plans to buy back $5bn of shares in 2022. The S&P 500 wraps up a torrid January in the red – its worse month in two years. In the UK, the fallout from the Sue Gray ‘partygate’ report continues. Prime Minist...

Wall Street looks set to close the month sharply lower, with the Nasdaq set for its worst month since 2008 as investors prepare for tighter Fed policy. The U.K. targets Russian oligarchs amid red-hot tensions between Kyiv and Moscow, with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss saying new sanctions will send a clear message. In Italy, Sergio Mattarella signs on for a second term as President, after lawmakers...

Apple reports its best quarterly earnings ever, beating expectations for Mac and iPhone sales over Christmas. On a conference call, CEO Tim Cook says that supply chain issues are showing signs of fading. Not so for Tesla, however, with shares dragging down Wall Street during another volatile session on Thursday after CEO Elon Musk sounded a warning over chip shortages. Luxury giant LVMH enjoys rec...

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell all but confirms a March rate hike at the next FOMC meeting. He hints there will be more to come, again causing waves on Wall Street. Asian markets and U.S. futures slumped into the red, while short-term Treasury yields neared two-year highs following Powell’s speech. Earnings season is under way with Tesla posting record Q4 results and issuing positive guida...

The Dow swings from an 800-point loss back into the green before sinking into the red once more. Hayman Capital Management’s Kyle Bass tells CNBC that the Fed is a tinder box for markets, ahead of today’s crucial decision where it’s expected to signal the first rate hike in more than three years. U.S. President Joe Biden reiterates warnings to Russia against invading Ukraine, saying that any such...

U.S. markets ride a rollercoaster session on Monday – making their biggest intraday comeback since the GFC - with the Dow recovering more than 1,000 points. Asian equities fail to follow suit, with the Nikkei slumping to a two-year low. Credit Suisse warns fourth-quarter profit will be negatively impacted by litigation costs of around CHF500m with the lender saying it now only expects to roughly b...

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq both post their worst week since the start of the pandemic, with markets skittish ahead of this week’s Federal Reserve meeting. We hear from IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva who says central bank clarity is vital for global economic recovery. Georgieva spoke to us during a Davos Agenda panel on the global economic outlook, which also featured the ECB's Chri...

Streaming giant Netflix sees shares plummet in extended trade, putting it on track for its worst day since 2012 as increased competition hits subscriber growth. The Nasdaq descends deep into correction territory as rate hike fears spook investors, but U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen tells CNBC inflation should fall back down towards 2 per cent later this year. Cryptocurrencies also take a hit...

Higher treasury yields continue to pile pressure onto U.S. equities with tech stocks suffering in particular. The Nasdaq enters correction territory but BofA CEO Bran Moynihan tells CNBC the prospect of rate hikes signals that the worst of the pandemic effects on the economy are largely behind us. In a bid to prop up a slowing Chinese economy, the PBOC slashes a key lending rate for the first time...

Ten-year Treasury yields hit a two-year high sparking a Wall Street sell-off as investors brace themselves for a possible rate hike at next week’s Fed meeting. However, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink tells CNBC he remains sanguine about any tightening at this point. We have more bank earnings from Wall St. with Goldman Sachs plunges almost 7 per cent in yesterday’s session as its Q4 costs come in higher...

Asian equities slump and U.S. futures fall, while yields climb, ahead of a big week for the Fed. In Japan, the BoJ lifts inflation forecasts and says risks are generally balanced. Newly appointed German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock arrives in Moscow following talks with her Ukrainian counterpart in Kyiv, as tensions with Russia show no signs of abating. And in Brussels, euro zone finance min...

From politics to sports to banking giants, Covid rule breaches threaten the positions of the powerful. Credit Suisse chairman António Horta-Osório is forced to resign after breaching restrictions in Switzerland on several occasions. Former UBS Group COO Axel Lehmann has been named his successor. In M&A news, Unilever’s £50bn offer for GSK’s consumer unit is slapped down. However, GSK has assur...

Tech stocks weigh on U.S. and Asian markets with the Nasdaq breaking a three-day winning streak and the Nikkei slumping. Producer price inflation Stateside hits its highest level in 12 years, while several Fed members take a more hawkish line on rate hikes. Chinese imports come in far lower than expected but exports are propped up by global demand. In tech news, German software giant SAP issues st...

U.S. consumer inflation hits a four-decade high but President Biden says prices have peaked. U.S. futures are down ahead of an earnings season where S&P 500 companies are expected to deliver Q4 growth upwards of 20 per cent. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces a chorus of calls to resign after admitting he did attend a Downing Street drinks party in May 2020 while the country was subject t...

U.S. Fed chair Jerome Powell testifies in front of the Senate Banking Committee and warns law makers that inflation remains a severe threat. However, Powell insisted that the U.S. economy is now robust enough not to require additional pandemic-level monetary stimulus. Powell’s main task would be to keep inflation in check, as U.S. markets look ahead to a CPI print today which could hit a high not...

The Nasdaq dips in to correction territory but wins back losses of more than 2 per cent. We hear exclusively from Goldman Sachs’s David Kostin who says the tech disconnect is the largest issue for clients. U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell is set to testify in the Senate where he will address the effect inflation is having on the American economy while JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon predicts t...

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says high-stakes talks between Washington and Moscow are unlikely to progress over Ukraine, as Russian troops gather on the border. In China, 14 million people are being tested for Covid over 2 days in the north-eastern port city of Tianjin – less than an hour from the capital. December payrolls in the U.S. come in weaker than expected but unemployment falls....

U.S. treasury yields continue to surge with investors bracing for an accelerated winding down of monetary support, while billionaire investor Ray Dalio tells CNBC the Fed is in a ‘delicate’ position. The WHO warns of an Omicron tsunami as global health systems struggle, but it says vaccine equity could end the pandemic this year. Oil prices pop as the violence continues in Kazakhstan’s largest cit...

U.S. tech majors slide and the 10-year yield touches 1.7% after the Fed minutes hint at efforts to shrink the balance sheet together with rate hikes. At least seven EU countries report record daily Covid cases – while the UK eases testing rules. And French supermarket giant Auchan eyes a second bid for rival Carrefour after initial takeover talks were suspended in October.   See Privacy...

The Dow hits a new record high as investor confidence picks up, but tech stocks slump on a rotation out of the sector. Opec nations hold their nerve against the Omicron outbreak and agree to boost output for the seventh consecutive month. China Mobile lists in Shanghai in the country’s biggest domestic IPO in a decade. Meanwhile in Europe, Covid cases continue to surge with new daily highs recorde...

The Dow and the S&P 500 begin 2022 with fresh records, as Apple becomes the first U.S. company to achieve a $3 tn market cap. Troubled Chinese property giant Evergrande’s shares resume trading after authorities order it to demolish 39 developments on the tropical island of Hainan. Chinese manufacturing beats expectations in December as input prices fall to their lowest level since May 2020. An...

U.S. futures begin 2022 pointing high but Asian equities are softer with the Hang Seng under pressure, as Evergrande is halted, pending the release of inside information. Turkish inflation rockets, with CPI up 13% on the month. France becomes the sixth country in the world to record 10mn covid cases, as it eases restrictions. Tesla beats its own delivery and production records in Q4, delivering al...