Before the bell: catching our breath

L’Oréal and Hermès disappoint, Beyond Meat goes on a wild ride, and Tesla delivers mixed results.

The average European stock, measured by the Euro Stoxx 50, fell 0.8% yesterday — the same decline seen in Brussels’ Bel20. Clearly, investors had been hoping for more. Across the Atlantic, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq dropped 0.5% and 0.9%, respectively. One bright spot was Intuitive Surgical (+13.9%), the pioneer in robotic surgery, which impressed with strong quarterly results. Meanwhile, Beyond Meat (-1%) had another rollercoaster day: the stock surged 100% after the opening bell, only to erase all gains by the close.

In Asia, markets are taking a breather as well. The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong fell 0.2%, and Japan’s Nikkei lost 0.8%. Today’s European earnings calendar is full: in the Netherlands, we’ll see results from BE Semiconductor, RELX, and Unilever; in France, from STMicroelectronics and Renault; and in Scandinavia, from Nokia and Atlas Copco. Later in the U.S., investors can expect earnings from American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Honeywell, Dow Chemical, Hasbro, Intel, and Deckers Brands.

A peek behind the makeup and into the handbag

Sometimes what lies behind the makeup and inside the handbag can be surprising — and so were the results from L’Oréal (-6.7%) and Hermès (-2.3%). L’Oréal reported quarterly revenue of 10.3 billion euro, up 4.2% year-on-year, but below analysts’ expectations of 4.9% growth. Sales in China were strong, but a weaker North American market dragged down the overall result. Earlier this week, L’Oréal announced plans to acquire the beauty division of luxury group Kering, and the company hinted that it is also interested in taking a stake in fashion house Armani. Hermès, meanwhile, posted 4.8% revenue growth to 3.88 billion euro, but investors had clearly been hoping for more after LVMH’s strong results last week.

Tesla hits the tariff wall — thankfully only with minor damage

Tesla delivered nearly half a million vehicles to customers in the third quarter — a record. However, profits did not keep pace: net income fell more than 25% to 1.8 billion dollar compared to a year earlier. The culprit? Donald Trump’s high import tariffs, which are weighing on the company’s margins. The good news: Tesla recorded revenue growth for the first time in three quarters, up 12% to 28.1 billion dollar, above analysts’ forecast of 26.4 billion. Still, investors didn’t quite know what to make of the results, sending the stock down 3.8% in volatile after-hours trading.

Did you know…

that despite tariffs of 55%, about 1 billion dollar worth of goods is still shipped from China to the United States every day — a decline of only 17% in value compared with a year ago?

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