The Amsterdam stock exchange was trading higher towards the end of the morning on Monday, with Philips on the rise after the announcement of a settlement in the US. The AEX rose 0.8 percent to 890.00 points around 11 a.m. and was therefore heading for a new record.
Philips announced a $1.1 billion settlement in the US on Monday during its quarterly results regarding personal injury and medical monitoring surrounding its sleep apnea devices, much earlier than expected, according to ING.
“We expected a settlement in late 2024/early 2025,” said analyst Marc Hesselink, who further called the settlement a “black box event” with “uncertain timing” that has now been resolved. According to Hesselink, there is a premium in the share by “removing the uncertainty.”
Furthermore, European stock markets had a quiet start to the week, pending the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision on Wednesday evening and two American jobs reports later in the week.
“Investors are especially curious about Jerome Powell’s subsequent press conference. It recently emerged that there could be fewer interest rate cuts than expected this year. Some analysts even think that there will be no more interest rate cuts until 2025, as market expectations for the first interest rate cut have been pushed back several times,” said investment specialist Justin Blekemolen of online broker Lynx.
The earnings season also continues this week, with results from Samsung, Coca-Cola, Super Micro Computer and the stock market giants Amazon and Apple, among others.
On a macroeconomic level, it was still quiet on Monday morning. A slight improvement in consumer confidence in the eurozone was confirmed. German inflation figures will be released this afternoon.
Oil prices fell slightly on Monday, as did bond yields.
The euro/dollar traded 0.2 percent higher this morning at 1.0713. The Japanese yen fell against the US dollar early on Monday morning to the lowest level since 1990, at 160.21, before suddenly rebounding almost two percent from that level to 155.70. According to ING currency analysts, this could indicate intervention by the Bank of Japan.
Tokyo declined to comment officially this morning, but these moves have “all the standard hallmarks of currency intervention: the “line in the sand” at 160.0, the sharp increase in volume and the size of the move,” ING said.
ING expects the dollar/yen exchange rate to remain volatile today, fluctuating between 156 and 157. By mid-morning on Monday, the currency pair was trading at 155.85.
Risers and fallers
Philips led the AEX, with a profit of no less than 38 percent. In the past quarter, Philips achieved a turnover of 4.14 billion euros, compared to 4.17 billion euros in the same period a year earlier. The analyst consensus expected 4.15 billion euros. Adjusted EBITA in the first quarter amounted to 388 million euros, compared to 350 million euros a year earlier and above the expectation of 361 million euros that analysts had expected in advance. Furthermore, the outlook was maintained and Philips became slightly more positive about the expected cash flow in 2024.
Exor, which is a shareholder in Philips, rose by 4.0 percent.
AkzoNobel, Adyen and Besi were at the bottom with declines of 1 to 2 percent, Akzo and Besi due to ex-dividend quotations. ASMI was also under pressure, with a loss of 2.4 percent.
IMCD rose 1.5 percent. This is despite Kepler Cheuvreux lowering the price target while maintaining the Hold recommendation.
In AMX, Alfen won no less than 13.5 percent. The temporary production stop of Pacto substations for Liander and the subsequent ramp-up of production will have no impact on the target of achieving a 20 percent turnover growth at Smart Grid Solutions this year, Alfen said.
Losses were limited in the Midkap, to approximately one percent for InPost.
In the AScX, NX Filtration gained 7.4 percent. Vastned actually fell 6.9 percent after an ex-dividend listing.