European markets head for mixed open after Wall Street logs another day of declines

Shares of Swiss engineering firm ABB rose 5.5% in early deals after the company reported an expectation-beating rise in operating profit.

On the other end of the Stoxx 600, British biopharma firm Sartorius Stedim fell 13% after reporting a fall in first-quarter sales and net income.

— Karen Gilchrist

Norway’s giant sovereign wealth fund on Thursday reported first-quarter profit of 1.21 trillion kroner ($109.9 billion), supported by robust returns on its investments in technology stocks.

“Our equity investments had a very strong return in the first quarter, particularly driven by the tech sector,” Trond Grande, deputy CEO of the fund, said in a statement.

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, was established in the 1990s to invest the surplus revenues of the country’s oil and gas sector. To date, the fund has put money in more than 8,800 companies in more than 70 countries around the world.

— Sam Meredith

London-listed Hipgnosis Songs Fund, the music intellectual property investment company founded by Merck Mercuriadis and Nile Rodgers in 2018, announced Thursday its board has recommended a sale to music rights investor Concord — valuing the firm at $1.4 billion.

Shares of the FTSE 250 constituent were 31% higher at 8:30 a.m. U.K. time Thursday.

Hipgnosis snapped up song rights for high-profile artists including the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Mark Ronson, Shakira, Neil Young and Blondie, but has been mired in financial reporting issues, while its pre-tax operating loss widened in 2023 to $86.63 million.

The valuation is the equivalent of £0.932 ($1.16) per share, a 32.2% premium on Wednesday’s closing price. Financing for the deal will be supported by Concord’s partner Apollo Capital Management, the U.S. private equity giant.

In a release, the companies said Concord had a “proven track record of strategic acquisitions and catalogue expansion” and that the “creators connected to the rights” would benefit from the deal.

It also said that to achieve a “material improvement in the share price,” the company needed “substantial financial and governance changes to improve its financial performance.”

— Jenni Reid

European stocks were cautiously higher early Thursday, with the Stoxx 600 index up 0.25% at 8:13 a.m. in London and sectors trading mixed.

Major bourses climbed, with France’s CAC 40 up 0.5%, the U.K.’s FTSE 100 up 0.5% and Germany’s DAX up 0.3%.

— Jenni Reid

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The British pound was higher against the U.S. dollar and euro Thursday morning, extending Wednesday gains on the back of higher-than-expected U.K. inflation data which pushed market expectations for interest rate cuts later in the year.

Sterling was up 0.27% against the greenback at $1.248 at 7:30 a.m. in London, and 0.1% higher against the euro at 1.167.

— Jenni Reid

First-quarter earnings season is beginning to ramp up in Europe, with reporting from the likes of Swiss engineering firm ABB and telecom giant Nokia on Thursday.

ABB reported flat revenue for the period of $7.87 billion, and an 11% rise in operating profit to $1.41 billion, ahead of expectations.

Finland’s Nokia missed market expectations for operating profit, according to Reuters, as net sales tumbled 19%.

— Jenni Reid

Crude oil futures fell more than 3% Wednesday as the market dismissed the risk of a wider war between Israel and Iran that could disrupt supplies.

The West Texas Intermediate contract for May delivery lost $2.76, or 3.23%, to $82.60 a barrel. June Brent futures were down $2.87, or 3.19%, at $87.15 a barrel. U.S. oil and the global benchmark are down more than 3.5% for the week.

“Theories of Iran-Israel tension disrupting oil supplies have fizzled out,” said Manish Raj, managing director of Velandera Energy Partners. “Peace may have come to an end, but oil continues to flow,” he said.

— Spencer Kimball

Morgan Stanley and HSBC are cutting dozens of investment banking jobs in the Asia-Pacific region this week, according to a Reuters report.

Citing sources, Reuters said this comes as the two banks ramp up cost-cutting, with weaker deal-making and sluggish markets in China and Hong Kong weighing on business prospects.

Morgan Stanley is cutting at least 50 investment banking jobs in the region starting this week, according to the report, affecting around 13% of its Asia investment banking workforce of 400.

HSBC reportedly started layoffs on Tuesday, and around 30 dealmakers are expected to leave the company.

— Lim Hui Jie

Analysts have lowered their expectations on several global stocks this week by cutting their price targets.

The price target changes come ahead of the next earnings season covering the first quarter of this year.

CNBC Pro screened for global stocks in the MSCI World index that have received price target downgrades over the past seven days and are yet to report earnings.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more about the 10 stocks here.

— Ganesh Rao

European markets are set to open mixed Thursday.

The U.K.’s FTSE 100 index is expected to open 17 points higher at 7,872, Germany’s DAX up 5 points at 17,789, France’s CAC 10 points lower at 7,983 and Italy’s FTSE MIB down 8 points at 32,963, according to data from IG.

Earnings are set to come from Nokia, Easyjet and ABB. Data releases include new European car registration figures for March.

— Holly Ellyatt