Corporate results:

  • ABB: Order intake declines in Q4.
  • Banco Santander: Q4 net profit rises to €2.3bn.
  • Deutsche Bank: Q4 net profit comes up a little short of expectations. Current year revenues expected to be between €28-29bn.
  • Infineon: Segment margin expected to come out in fiscal Q2 at around 25%, versus 23.5% initially projected.
  • ING Groep: Q4 net profit came in at €1.1bn, slightly above consensus.
  • Nordea: Q4 net profit reaches €1.64bn.
  • Roche Holding: 2023 growth expected to slow.
  • Shell: The oil major company posted a record annual profit of $40bn.
  • Siemens Healthineers: The group reports a 28% drop in Q4 operating profit due to lower Covid test sales and delays at a supplier to its Varian business.
  • Sony: Annual operating profit should be slightly higher than expected.
  • Meta Platforms jumped 19 percent in pre-market trading after announcing Wednesday night a $40 billion share buyback program, tighter cost controls this year and an upbeat forecast for its first-quarter revenue. Apple, Alphabet and Amazon, which will report results after the U.S. markets close, were up 1.1% to 4.3% in pre-market trading.
  • Eli Lilly on Thursday raised its full-year profit target, expecting higher demand for its new diabetes drug Mounjaro.
  • Estee Lauder raised its full-year sales forecast Thursday on solid demand for its products and an expected recovery in China, its largest market.
  • Honeywell reported a 28.6% drop in fourth-quarter profit, hampered by supply problems and labor shortages.
  • Merck reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit on strong Asian sales of its Covid-19 antiviral. The company's profit forecast for this year, however, came in below analysts' consensus, sending the stock down 1% in premarket trading.
  • Metlife reported a 33% drop in adjusted fourth-quarter profit on Wednesday.

In other news:

  • KKR has made a non-binding offer to acquire a majority stake in Telecom Italia's fixed-line telecommunications network.
  • Boeing won a $1.62 billion contract from the U.S. Air Force to supply guidance systems for the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile.
  • Pinterest decided to lay off about 150 employees, less than 5 percent of its workforce, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.
  • Adani Enterprises cancels its capital increase.
  • FedEx will lay off more than 10% of its executives and directors.
  • Sony will promote CFO Hiroki Totoki to president and COO.
  • Trading in several Adani stocks suspended after their plunge.
  • Honda will begin production of a new hydrogen fuel cell system developed jointly with General Motors.
  • Swatch proposes a dividend of CHF 6 per share (CHF 1.20 per registered share).

Today's main earnings reports: Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Eli Lilly, Roche, Merck & Co, Costco, Shell, Sony, Qualcomm, Estée Lauder, ABB, Dassault Systèmes, ING Groep, Infineon, Nordea, Deutsche Bank... All the agenda is here.