Global stocks edge lower ahead of round of corporate earnings results

A gauge of global stocks edged lower for a second straight session but remained near two-month highs on Monday in advance of another round of corporate earnings results.

Dublin

Euronext Dublin escaped the worst of it, outperforming international peers, as it finished the day up 0.5 per cent.

It was a bad day at the office for the banks, however, with AIB and Bank of Ireland down 3 and 4 per cent respectively. “Volumes were reasonable and there was no stock specific news so seem to have just given up some recent gains,” noted a trader.

Most of the other standout moves were into positive territory, with insulation specialist Kingspan up 2.5 per cent while box-maker Smurfit Kappa was up 2 per cent in line with peers.

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The airlines enjoyed a positive day, with EasyJet up 4.5 per cent and Ryanair up 1.8 per cent. Aer Lingus parent International Airlines Group, meanwhile, finished the day up 2 per cent.

Elsewhere, Kerry Group was up 2.5 per cent at close of business. “The company has had some massive moves in recent times, up 4 per cent in the past week and about 10 per cent over the past month,” a trader said.

London

There was little excitement on London’s top index as shares remained largely unchanged on the day.

The muted session came as small falls for the financial sector were outweighed by gains elsewhere, including for some of the retailers.

By the end of the day, London’s FTSE 100 index had risen by just 0.1 per cent.

Online retailer THG made what might be the day’s biggest splash as it revealed it had been approached by a potential buyer. Shares closed up close to 32 per cent after the business revealed that US buyout firm Apollo might be interested in a deal.

Shares in John Wood Group also jumped, albeit just by 6 per cent, after it said that it was also engaging with Apollo over a potential deal.

The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were IAG, up 4.35p to 150.3p; RS Group, up 24.2p to 873.2p; Weir Group, up 45.5p to 1,937p; Ashtead, up 111p to 4,791p; and Ocado, up 12p to 522p.

The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Abrdn, down 5.1p to 202.6p; Barclays, down 3.6p to 154.28p; M &, down 4.1p to 195.9p; Prudential, down 24.0p to 1,145p; and Beazley, down 11.5p to 571.5p.

[ European shares buoyed by positive earnings from major US banks ]

Europe

On the Continent, the pan-European Stoxx 600 index lost 0.05 per cent, while the MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe shed 0.14 per cent.

There were losses also for the Dax in Germany, which fell by 0.1 per cent, while France’s Cac 40 dropped 0.3 per cent. The euro fell 0.7 per cent against the dollar to $1.0917.

New York

US stocks slipped after strong data on manufacturing activity in New York state supported the case for another interest rate increase in May, while investors awaited more quarterly reports to gauge the health of corporate America.

State Street’s shares sank 11.9 per cent after the custodian bank’s first-quarter profit missed estimates, hurt by a fall in fee income due to the recent US banking crisis.

Peers Northern Trust and Bank of New York Mellon shed 4.8 per cent and 6.9 per cent, respectively.

At 11.38am eastern time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.12 per cent; the S&P 500 was down or 0.29 per cent; and the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.4 per cent.

Google parent, Alphabet, dropped 3.7 per cent after a report that Samsung was considering replacing Google with Microsoft Corp’s Bing as the default search engine on its devices. Microsoft’s shares rose 0.3 per cent.

Prometheus Biosciences rallied 69.2 per cent on Merck’s plans to buy the biotech company for about $10.8 billion. – Additional reporting: Agencies