Europe was sorted by receipts, not moods

By early afternoon on Wednesday the pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.7%, after a session on Tuesday in which it fell as much as 1% before ending virtually flat¹. Germany’s DAX was up 1% and France’s CAC 40 0.8%; London’s FTSE 100 was largely flat after UK inflation rose more than expected to 3.5%¹. Index levels are the least interesting part of the day. The spread between individual shares told you more.

The top of the list. EssilorLuxottica, which makes Ray-Ban glasses, rose more than 15% after third-quarter revenue beat expectations¹. Adidas gained 2.5% after raising its full-year outlook¹. European chip-equipment makers BE Semiconductor, ASM International and ASML, and the chipmaker STMicroelectronics, each rose more than 2%¹.

The bottom. Carrefour fell nearly 14% after cutting its annual forecast and saying that riots, looting and curfews had raised costs and disrupted trading¹. That is the French unrest arriving where it eventually has to: in a company’s guidance, written in euros. A curfew is a public order measure. For a retailer it is also shorter opening hours, extra security and damaged stock.

The expectations bar. Analysts polled by Reuters expect third-quarter earnings at STOXX 600 companies to grow 20.7% from a year earlier, slower than the 24.0% of the second quarter but still fast¹. More than half of the index by market value reports over the next two weeks¹. A high bar makes results matter more, in both directions, as Wednesday showed.

Across the Atlantic. Wall Street opened higher: the Dow up 0.30% at 52,652.85, the S&P 500 up 0.31% at 7,736.43 and the Nasdaq up 0.67%, helped by results from SpaceX and Super Micro Computer². Netflix slipped after its forecast failed to impress². Meta and Tesla report after the close¹. Nothing here is advice; it is a reading of the day’s published figures.