European markets higher with earnings and bond yields in focus; Ocado gains 10%

Britain’s competition watchdog on Tuesday said it was opening a formal antitrust investigation into Google’s search and search advertising services.

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— Ryan Browne

Shares of Games Workshop, manufacturer of miniature wargames such as Warhammer, fell 2.5% by 10:01 a.m. London time.

The company reported half-year revenues of £269.4 million ($329.1 million), up from £235.6 million a year earlier. Dividends decreased, however, with the pay-out per share coming in at £1.85, lower than the £1.95 for the first half of 2023.

— Chloe Taylor

London-listed retailer Card Factory’s shares shot up by more than 8% after releasing a merry fourth-quarter financial result.

The company reported that total sales rose by 6.2% to £506.6 million ($619.13 million) for the 11 months to Dec. 31 as the retailer added 32 new stores to its portfolio.

“It was a good Christmas for CARD, taking market share and outperforming the broader market,” Investec analyst Kate Calvert said in a note to clients Tuesday morning.

— Ganesh Rao

Shares of Ocado were up 12.6% by 9:04 a.m. London time, after the British online grocery retailer reported record-breaking Christmas sales for its Ocado Retail unit — a joint venture with U.K. retail giant M&S.

The division’s fourth-quarter revenues were up 17.5% year on year at £715.8 million ($873.5 million), with sales volumes jumping 17%, according to a trading update released on Tuesday.

— Chloe Taylor

Daimler Truck announced Tuesday that Amazon had placed an order for more than 200 of its eActros 600 vehicles for use in the U.K. and Germany.

It marked the tech giant’s biggest ever order of electric heavy goods vehicles, Daimler said, and the largest e-truck contract to date for Mercedes-Benz trucks. Daimler produces trucks that are marketed under various brands, including Mercedes-Benz.

The vehicles will join Amazon’s fleet this year, and are expected to transport more than 350 million packages annually.

Shares of Daimler were up 1.8% at 8:43 a.m. in London.

— Chloe Taylor

Shares of British sportswear retailer JD Sports were down 10.5% at 8:20 a.m. London time, after the company posted a trading update in which it downgraded its profit guidance.

JD Sports said it now expected pretax profit before adjusting items to come in between £915 million ($1.12 billion) and £935 million for its fiscal year. Back in November, the firm had given a guidance range of £955 million to £1.035 billion.

— Chloe Taylor

British energy major BP on Tuesday said that weaker refinery margins and turnaround activity will deliver a $100 million to $300 million blow to its fourth-quarter profit, with further declines expected in oil production.

The company, which reports quarterly and full-year 2024 earnings on Feb. 11, said in a trading update that the results of its oil production and operations segment will lead to a $200 million to $400 million dent in the fourth quarter, given price lags on its output in the Gulf of Mexico and the UAE. Oil trading performance is consequently expected to be weak across the period.

BP said that its activity in gas and low-carbon energy will boost fourth-quarter results by $100 million to $200 million, including changes in prices that are not linked to the Henry Hub gas marker. The major forecasts gas trading to be “average” during the timeframe, despite this.

In the upstream segment, BP anticipates lower fourth-quarter output than in the third quarter across both oil and gas and low carbon. Despite this, the company sees overall full-year 2024 production as coming in “slightly higher” than in 2023.

More broadly, the company expects non-cash, post-tax charges connected to $1 billion to $2 billion of impairments across all of its segments in the fourth quarter.

BP has been weathering the storm of oil price declines hitting revenues and scandals associated with the departure of former chief Bernard Looney. CEO Murray Auchincloss is expected to leverage the company’s capital markets event to bolster confidence in the major’s strategy.

On Tuesday, BP said that the event, previously scheduled for Feb. 11 in New York, has been postponed to Feb. 26 in London. It further noted that Auchincloss is “recovering well” from a planned medical procedure and will return to office next month.

BP shares were down 2.75% at 08:02 a.m. London time, just after open.

 — Ruxandra Iordache

After hitting multi-year lows against the U.S. dollar on Monday, Europe’s major currencies gained momentum on Tuesday morning.

The euro and the British pound were both up by around 0.1% at 7:33 a.m. London time. The dollar index — which measures the greenback against a basket of rival currencies — hit its highest level in more than two years on Monday, following hotter-than-expected U.S. jobs data late last week.

— Chloe Taylor

Tech stocks continued to reign supreme among investors in 2024 with many investors favoring some of the so-called Magnificent Seven stocks of Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla, as well as other lesser-known small- and medium-sized companies.

Principal Asset Management’s Martin Frandsen continues to see potential in the Magnificent Seven this year, but also sees value in other stocks within the sector.

Elsewhere, Michele Schneider, chief market strategist at Marketgauge.com sees opportunities in a range of high-growth sectors that are “poised to offer substantial returns for strategic reallocations of undervalued assets.”

She also revealed three tech stocks she’s betting on right now.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Amala Balakrishner

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average ended Monday’s session in the green.

The broad market index added 0.16%, while the Dow rose 0.86%.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite underperformed the market and closed 0.38% lower.

— Hakyung Kim

European markets are expected to open higher Tuesday.

The U.K.’s FTSE 100 index is expected to open 4 points higher at 8,226, Germany’s DAX up 106 points at 20,241, France’s CAC up 66 points at 7,472 and Italy’s FTSE MIB up 272 points at 35,082, according to data from IG.

Trading updates are set to come from Ocado, JD Sports, Persimmon and OMV on Tuesday. Lindt & Sprüngli will release its latest earnings.

— Holly Ellyatt