Stoxx 600, FTSE, DAX, earnings

Swiss stocks declined on Wednesday as the country’s President and economic minister were meeting U.S. government officials in an attempt to lower the 39% tariffs imposed by President Trump.

The Swiss Market Index fell 0.9% despite a broadly positive trading session for European equities.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index closed flat. Regionally, the FTSE 100 closed up 0.2%, CAC 40 rose 0.2% and Germany’s DAX was higher 0.3%.

— Ganesh Rao

Speaking to CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” this morning, Karsten Munk Knudsen, chief financial officer of Novo Nordisk, responded to U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to slap 250% tariffs on pharmaceuticals.

Knudsen noted that the Danish pharmaceutical giant was “already investing a lot in the U.S.,” with a $4 billion expansion project underway.

“When we’re filling cartridges and putting it into pen devices, that’s predominantly U.S. manufacturing for U.S. patients, so that’s already in place,” he said.

“And then on the active ingredients [in weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy], we are actually exporting more from the U.S. than we’re importing in terms of volumes. So the trade balance, if you can call it that, is actually in a rather good place, and putting Novo Nordisk in, I think, a better place than many other pharmaceutical companies.”

— Chloe Taylor

We’re around three hours into Wednesday’s session, and pharmaceutical stocks are extending their losses.

The Stoxx Europe Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology index was last seen trading 1.8% lower, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs of up to 250% on the pharmaceuticals sector.

Swiss pharmaceutical giants Novartis and Roche were 3.2% and 2.3% lower, respectively, by 11 a.m. in London (6 a.m. ET), while Merck was 1.1% lower and Britain’s GSK shed 0.8%.

— Chloe Taylor

Shares of German chemicals giant Bayer were last seen trading 4.5% lower, after the company said on Wednesday that it was “on track following an encouraging first half of the year.”

Adjusted second-quarter sales jumped 0.9% year on year to reach 10.7 billion euros ($12.4 billion), while EBITDA — earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization — fell 0.3% to 2.1 billion euros.

Analysts had been expecting Bayer’s second-quarter EBITDA to come in at 1.8 billion euros, according to LSEG data.

CEO Bill Anderson said in a statement alongside the results that Bayer was raising its 2025 currency-adjusted guidance for both sales and earnings, citing strong performance in the firm’s pharmaceuticals division.

That came in spite of a net loss of 199 million euros in the second quarter, which the company attributed to special charges arising from litigation. The company is still entangled in legal action against its Roundup weedkiller, which claimants have linked to health problems such as cancer.

Meanwhile, news agency Reuters reported on Wednesday that Bayer had cut 12,000 jobs since it began its restructuring program.

— Chloe Taylor

The Stoxx Europe Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology index was 0.8% lower by 8:46 a.m. in London (3:46 a.m. ET), as investors reacted to U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest round of tariffs threats.

The president told CNBC on Tuesday that tariffs on the pharma sector could go as high as 250% within a year and a half.

The biggest losses in the sector in early morning trade were Sweden’s Oncopeptides, down 7%, and Belgian life sciences firm Galapagos, down 5.3%.

— Chloe Taylor

German chemical consumer goods group Beiersdorf lowered its full year sales guidance on Wednesday, citing difficult market conditions.

The Nivea maker now expects organic sales growth of 3%, down from its guidance of 4% to 6% after a weaker-than-expected first half. The group said it expects an improvement for the rest of the year. 

Shares were last seen trading 9% lower, taking the company to the bottom of the Stoxx 600 index.

— Michael Considine

We’re around 15 minutes into Wednesday’s trading session, and regional stocks are broadly on the rise.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 was last seen trading 0.3% higher, led by construction and industrials stocks.

London’s FTSE 100 was last seen up by around 0.2%, while the French CAC 40 and Germany’s DAX index each gained 0.5%.

— Chloe Taylor

First-half profit at Glencore fell 14% amid headwinds from lower coal prices, along with “temporary, but largely expected” operational factors at its copper business.

The mining giant said its shares will stay listed in London, and that is does not believe becoming a U.S. domestic issuer would currently be “value accretive” for its shareholders.

— Emilia Hardie

Siemens Energy posted a record quarterly order intake on Wednesday, as orders for its fiscal third quarter jumped 64.6% to 16.6 billion euros ($19.2 billion).

On a comparable basis, revenue jumped 13.5% to 9.7 billion euros, while net income reached 697 million euros — up from a net loss of 102 million euros in the same quarter last year.

“Siemens Energy reaffirms the raised outlook issued in the second quarter with a tendency towards the upper end of the guided ranges,” the company said.

— Chloe Taylor

Trade relations between the U.S. and European Union “will not get clearer” for businesses than they are now that the two partners have struck their tariff agreement, Commerzbank’s CEO told CNBC Wednesday. 

When asked during an interview on “Europe Early Edition” whether companies have received enough certainty from the long-anticipated and recently brokered trade deal to proceed with investment plans, Commerzbank’s Bettina Orlopp said, “I think they have to. We all know that things can change, and you need to stay flexible, to say it like that. But I think it’s important to move forward, because Europe needs to transform.”

She nevertheless acknowledged “there will be a lot of uncertainty and volatility” in the coming quarters, while urging businesses to “stick to what we have in the moment and move forward.”

The Commerzbank chief noted that private clients have been pressing ahead with ventures, particularly in securities — while another segment of the lender’s client base representing medium-sized companies is “still hesitant” and “sits on a lot of investment plans” and had previously been waiting for the advent of the EU-U.S. tariff deal and for the first measures of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government.

— Ruxandra Iordache

In a note to clients on Wednesday morning, strategists and analysts at Deutsche Bank said European corporate earnings were coming in above their expectations.

“We expected earnings to beat consensus … but earnings came in even better than we expected,” they said. “So far 74% of companies in the STOXX 600 reported earnings. Aggregate earnings came in 8% higher than expected and grew by 7% yoy ex-Energy.”

They also noted that more European firms had raised their guidance this quarter than downgraded, adding that the recently announced EU-U.S. trade deal “should support that trend as reduced uncertainty allows for more upward revisions.”

“However, earnings did weaken sequentially, as the first tariff impacts were felt,” they conceded. “We expect tariffs to cost European equities around 4% earnings growth this year, which leaves us with a full-year earnings forecast for 2025 at 3%.”

— Chloe Taylor

Zalando has raised its full year guidance after the online fashion marketplace completed its acquisition of rival About You. 

The German firm now expects gross merchandise volumes to grow up to 15% in 2025, from an original forecast of up to 9%. 

— Michael Considine

Ahold Delhaize reiterated its 2025 outlook after posting 23.1 billion euros ($26.8 billion) in net sales for the second quarter, with adjusted earnings per share coming in slightly above expectations at 65 cents.

— Jordan Butt

Banco BPM topped net profit forecasts for the second quarter, with the Italian lender boosted by fees from the recently acquired fund manager Anima Holding.

The bank posted a record net profit of 1.2 billion euros ($1.4 billion) in the first half of the year.

It also confirmed its full-year outlook, just weeks after a takeover bid from UniCredit failed amid government opposition.

CEO Giuseppe Castagna hinted at further M&A activity for his bank in the earnings call, after confirming Banco BPM holds a 9% stake in domestic peer Monte dei Paschi. 

— Michael Considine, Chloe Taylor

Sales of Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster Wegovy weight loss drug surged in the second quarter, the company said in its latest report, days after cutting its full-year guidance and announcing a new CEO.

Overall revenues rose 13% year-on-year at constant exchange rates to 76.86 billion Danish kroner ($11.92 billion) in the three months to the end of June, just ahead of the 76.6 billion Danish kroner forecast.

Sales of its blockbuster Wegovy obesity drug rose 67% over the period to 19.53 billion Danish kroner, slightly below the 20 billion Danish kroner analysts had forecast.

Read more here.

— Karen Gilchrist

Fresenius has raised its revenue outlook for the full year, with the German healthcare group now expecting up to 7% organic growth.

CEO Michael Sen hailed a “resilient and consistent performance” in the first half, adding that the group will “focus on organic growth through disciplined capital allocation.”

— Michael Considine

Commerzbank‘s second-quarter net profit fell 14% year on year, the German lender said on Wednesday morning, citing restructuring costs.

Net profit for the quarter came in at 462 million euros ($535 million).

Meanwhile, the bank’s quarterly operating result jumped 34% from the previous year to 1.17 billion euros, helping it notch a record 2.4 billion operating result for the first half of the year.

Commerzbank raised its full-year outlook, saying it now expects a net result of around 2.5 billion euros, up from an earlier forecast of 2.4 billion euros.

— Chloe Taylor

U.K. Finance Minister Rachel Reeves could be facing a £51 billion ($67.9 billion) hole in the autumn budget.

That’s according to Britain’s National Institute of Economic and Social Research, which warns she faces an “impossible trilemma.”

The thinktank argues that the U.K. chancellor cannot comply with her fiscal rules, honour spending pledges and avoid tax increases for working people, arguing she needs to find an additional £41 billion for the government to meet its fiscal targets by 2029-30.

— Andreea Gheorghe

Good morning from London, and welcome to CNBC’s live blog covering all the action and business news in European financial markets on Wednesday.

Futures data from IG suggests a broadly positive open for European indexes, with London’s FTSE 100 seen opening 0.35% higher, France’s CAC 40 and Germany’s DAX up 0.25%, and Italy’s FTSE MIB 0.34% higher.

Global markets will be keeping an eye on the tariff landscape the rest of this week after U.S. President Donald Trump signaled he will announce new tariffs on semiconductors and chips as soon as next week.

“We’re going to be announcing [tariffs] on semiconductors and chips, which is a separate category, because we want them made in the United States,” Trump told CNBC on Tuesday, adding that he’ll announce the new plan “within the next week or so.”

Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed overnight on the comments, while S&P 500 futures were near flat Tuesday night as investors analyzed the latest batch of corporate earnings.

— Holly Ellyatt