Before the bell: calm indices, corporate fireworks

EVS secures the 2026 World Cup contract, Netflix reports after the bell, and Proximus remains the cheapest telecom stock. ‘GrabAGun’ is no joke.

Wall Street briefly dipped into the red yesterday following reports that Donald Trump planned to fire the chair of the US Federal Reserve. The source? A White House official. Trump quickly denied the news, markets recovered, and the S&P 500 still closed with a modest 0.3% gain. Case closed? Maybe not. Some insiders claim this was merely a test balloon from the Trump camp. For now, there’s little sign of surging inflation. Producer prices in the United States rose a modest 2.3% in June. You might almost side with Trump, but the Fed’s Beige Book, published yesterday, warned that consumer inflation is likely to accelerate by the end of the summer. One can only imagine Trump’s reaction reading that. All jokes aside, stock indices have been treading water for weeks, while individual company earnings continue to spark fireworks. Just yesterday: ASML plunged 11.3%, Barco jumped 13.5%, Johnson & Johnson gained 6.2%, Renault tumbled 18.5%, and Ontex dropped 12.9%.

In Asia, Hong Kong opened flat and Tokyo advanced 0.3%. In Brussels, all eyes are on EVS, following the post-market announcement that it has secured a “multi-million-euro contract” for the 2026 FIFA World Cup—a strong commercial reference, if nothing else. Today we also expect earnings from TSMC, PepsiCo, and Novartis, while Netflix reports after the US market closes.

Don’t reach for weapons—or this stock

It’s no joke, but rather a sobering reality: yesterday, GrabAGun debuted on Wall Street. The company is an e-commerce platform that sells firearms, parts, and ammunition online. Donald Trump Jr. is a shareholder and board member, while Omeed Malik—a prominent Trump and Republican donor—is the main shareholder via a SPAC that merged with GrabAGun. A SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company) is a shell company that goes public solely to raise capital and acquire another firm. The stock immediately dropped more than 20% after Trump Jr. rang the opening bell in New York. We prefer to steer well clear of this kind of story.

Already up 60% and still cheap

The good news keeps rolling in for Proximus. A report from the Belgian telecom regulator yesterday revealed that among the major providers, only Proximus managed to increase both revenue and market share. The total telecom market—business and consumer combined—was worth 8.64 billion euro last year, virtually unchanged from the year before. Growth is expected to come mainly from fibre-optic connections, but of the 1.7 million connections at the end of last year, only 33% were actually active. Proximus is betting on international growth, especially in secure internet services. As a (partially government-owned) company, it also has room to cut costs. Despite the share price already rising more than 60% this year, it still trades at just 6.5 times expected earnings. Bargain hunters, take note.

Did you know…

that 16.7% more homes were sold in Belgium in the first half of this year? Notaries even report an acceleration in recent months, calling it a clear reversal of the cooling seen in 2023 and 2024.

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