EUROPEAN MIDDAY BRIEFING : Stocks Fall as Positive -2-

Dixons Carphone PLC reported Wednesday a swing to a pretax profit for fiscal 2021 and said that its new financial year continued to benefit from a strong performance and it is confident about its outlook.

The retailer of electrical and telecommunications products posted a pretax profit for the year ended May 1 of 33 million pounds ($45.7 million) compared with a loss of GBP140 million a year earlier.

Telia Company Sells 49% Stake in Finland and Norway Tower Business for EUR722 Mln

Swedish telecommunications operator Telia Co. said Wednesday that it has agreed to sell a 49% stake in its tower business in Finland and Norway to Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. and Alecta for 722 million euros ($859.1 million).

Earlier this year, Telia Company announced its ambition to partner with external parties to further develop its digital infrastructure assets and crystalize value.

U.K. Deflation Accelerates, But Isn't Expected to Last

U.K. shop price deflation accelerated to 0.7% in June from 0.6% in May, the British Retail Consortium said Tuesday.

Nonfood deflation accelerated to 1.0% this month from the 0.8% recorded in May, but on-year declines in food prices slowed to 0.2% from 0.3%.

CEOs Welcome! U.K. Says Some Foreign Businesspeople Can Leave Quarantine

LONDON-The U.K. will allow foreign senior executives to leave a 10-day quarantine required of overseas travelers, so long as they can show their business visit is of "significant economic benefit."

The move is one of the more novel attempts by governments at loosening pandemic-era travel restrictions, as large-scale vaccinations in the U.S. and Europe start to boost economies. It also comes as Covid-19 cases in the U.K. are climbing again, thanks to the so-called Delta variant first identified in India.

Israel's Foreign Minister Opens Embassy in U.A.E. After Detente

Israel's top diplomat inaugurated Tuesday the country's embassy in the United Arab Emirates and expressed hope for a new era of closer ties, as the two nations struggle to bridge differences over the recent Israeli-Palestinian conflict and deliver on the promise of a historic diplomatic accord.

"Israel wants peace with its neighbors. With all its neighbors," Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said as he cut a blue-and-white ribbon to formally open the embassy in the capital, Abu Dhabi, alongside Emirati Minister of Culture and Youth Noura Al Kaabi. "To get to know one another we need to respect and learn each other's cultures."

Ethiopia Conflict Takes Dramatic Turn as Tigray Rebels Retake Regional Capital

Eight months after claiming victory over the rebellious region of Tigray, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmedhas been beaten into a shock retreat, his forces ejected from the regional capital after a lightning rebel offensive that could change the shape of geopolitics across the strategically vital Horn of Africa.

On Tuesday, jubilant crowds poured onto the streets of Tigray's regional capital, Mekelle, to welcome fighters from the Tigray Defence Forces who quickly took full control of the city. Troops from neighboring Eritrea, which crossed the border in November to help Ethiopian government and militia forces occupy the region, had retreated from other Tigrayan towns, eyewitnesses said.

GLOBAL NEWS

Treasury Yields Signal Investors' Waning Economic Exuberance

The recent drop in U.S. Treasury yields reveals some investors' doubts about how strong the economy will be in the coming years, even as inflation pushes to its highest level in more than a decade.

Yields, which fall when bond prices rise, have surprised many by sliding in the second quarter of the year. That marks a reversal from the sharp rise of the year's first three months, when markets generally rode a wave of optimism that stimulus and reopenings would spur a roaring '20s type of acceleration.

Biden Weighs New Executive Order Restraining Big Business

The Biden administration is developing an executive order directing agencies to strengthen oversight of industries that they perceive to be dominated by a small number of companies, a wide-ranging attempt to rein in big business power across the economy, according to people familiar with the plans.

The executive order, which President Biden could sign as soon as next week, would direct regulators of industries from airlines to agriculture to rethink their rule-making process to inject more competition and to give consumers, workers and suppliers more rights to challenge large producers.

China's Economy Flashes Hints of Weakness

BEIJING-Expansion in China's factory sector slowed in June, as export demand weakened while supply bottlenecks held back production, official data showed Wednesday.

Equally worrying, China's services sector, a persistent laggard in the country's post-pandemic rebound that Beijing policy makers are eager to see drive more of the economy, softened as recent coronavirus outbreaks again hindered consumer spending.

Biden, in Wisconsin, Touts Job-Creating Potential of Infrastructure Deal

President Biden hailed his infrastructure deal as a job-creating economic boon, while progressive Democrats signaled they would give the president wiggle room on selling the plan, which they want paired with a wide-ranging antipoverty proposal.

Mr. Biden visited a transit station in La Crosse, Wis., offering a detailed rundown of the roughly $1 trillion agreement reached with a bipartisan group of lawmakers to modernize aging roads, bridges and broadband networks, eliminate lead from water pipes and build new charging stations for electric vehicles.

Private Equity Gears Up for the Siege of Japan Inc.

Private-equity funds have a growing interest in Japan-and are making surprisingly good money there. The scandal at venerable Japanese electronics maker Toshiba could shape up as a test case for just how big the industry can grow in the world's third-largest economy.

There are no offers publicly on the table for Toshiba, but there is no doubt the company is an attractive target for private equity-especially with management on the back foot after shareholders ousted former Chairman Osamu Nagayama last week. Toshiba had previously dismissed a bid from CVC Capital Partners valuing the company at more than $20 billion, which would have made it the biggest private equity-led buyout in Japan. Activist investors are demanding that management now welcome and encourage interest from potential suitors.

Chinese Companies Keep Record Momentum Going for Hong Kong IPOs

Several mainland Chinese companies started taking share orders from investors on Wednesday, looking to raise a combined 11.43 billion Hong Kong dollars (US$1.47 billion) in an indication of the appetite for Hong Kong's white-hot equities market.

Eight companies spanning sectors ranging from technology to automobiles to education are marketing a total of 1.46 trillion shares to investors on the Hong Kong stock exchange from the second week of July, regulatory filings show.

Delta Variant's Spread Outpaces Australia's Covid-19 Contact Tracers

SYDNEY-The exchange, captured by CCTV camera, lasted only seconds.

A limousine driver, unknowingly infected with the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus, and another man passed close to one another at an indoor mall near Sydney's Bondi Beach. Both stood near each other for a short time, and one of them appeared to move through the airspace the other had occupied. The brief interaction was enough for the second man to contract the coronavirus.

Kim Jong Un Warns of Grave Covid-19 Situation in North Korea

SEOUL-Kim Jong Un said North Korea's Covid-19 situation has become grave and admonished senior officials for lapses in the fight against the disease.

Mr. Kim, speaking at a Politburo meeting, didn't specify what had gone wrong. North Korea has reported zero Covid-19 cases and tested more than 31,000 individuals, according to the World Health Organization's latest figures.

Biden Weighs New Executive Order Restraining Big Business

The Biden administration is developing an executive order directing agencies to strengthen oversight of industries that they perceive to be dominated by a small number of companies, a wide-ranging attempt to rein in big business power across the economy, according to people familiar with the plans.

The executive order, which President Biden could sign as soon as next week, would direct regulators of industries from airlines to agriculture to rethink their rule-making process to inject more competition and to give consumers, workers and suppliers more rights to challenge large producers.

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This article is a text version of a Wall Street Journal newsletter published earlier today.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

06-30-21 0619ET