Before the bell: Optimism over the trade war

Optimism returned to Wall Street on Thursday thanks to strong earnings from Microsoft and Meta. Apple and Amazon, however, failed to impress with their quarterly results.

Are trade agreements with the United States finally within reach? Investors clearly positioned themselves for that scenario on Thursday, as more positive signals emerged. China has stated it is evaluating whether to resume trade talks with the United States. This morning, the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong rose 1.6%. The S&P 500 extended its winning streak to eight days, adding 0.6%. One caveat: China insists that Trump suspend the tariffs on Chinese goods before talks can begin. Uncertainty remains, but investors interpret this as a sign of progress.

ING announced a 2 billion euro share buyback programme this morning and exceeded analyst expectations. This afternoon, Exxon Mobil will publish its earnings.

2–0 for Team M versus Team A

Yesterday, Team M of the Magnificent 7 (Microsoft and Meta) posted very strong results. Team A (Apple and Amazon) failed to match them. Apple disappointed mainly due to a drop in revenue from China. For the first quarter, Apple reported revenue of 95.4 billion dollar, which was 800 million dollar above analyst forecasts. Still, the weak performance in China is worrying. Brands like Huawei, Xiaomi and Oppo are gaining market share, while iPhone sales decline in what was once Apple’s key growth market. Additionally, Apple remains vulnerable to Trump’s announced import tariffs due to its heavy production base in China. Amazon also underwhelmed, issuing an operating income forecast of 13 to 17.5 billion dollar for the current quarter—short of the 17.8 billion dollar analysts had expected. For now, in this earnings season, it’s clear: Team M is winning.

A healthcare property merger takes shape

The deal is official. Healthcare real estate company Aedifica has announced its intention to acquire Cofinimmo. The offer would be paid in Aedifica shares: for every Cofinimmo share, shareholders would receive 1.16 Aedifica shares. Based on Wednesday’s closing price—after Aedifica rose 3%—this values Cofinimmo at 81.96 euro per share. That’s positive news for Cofinimmo shareholders. Aedifica will hold an analyst presentation at 10:00 to argue that the deal also creates value for its own shareholders. Notably, Cofinimmo’s management has not yet had time to assess the offer. If successful, the merger would create a new healthcare property giant in Belgium.

Did you know…

that Apple generated no less than 16 billion dollar in revenue from China this quarter? That’s about 17% of the company’s total sales—making Apple highly sensitive to trade war developments.

This article was translated from Dutch and was originally published on Spaarvarkens.be.