Before the bell: Broad strength at Barco, ASML shines only on orders

BlackRock attracts little new investor money. ASML and Barco kick off the European earnings season.

Indices in both Europe and on Wall Street fell between 0.5% and 1%, with the Nasdaq being the only one to eke out a small gain, mainly thanks to a 4% rise in Nvidia, currently the world’s most valuable listed company. The gain followed yet another policy reversal by Donald Trump, who has now allowed Nvidia to sell its slightly less powerful chips to China.

Inflation figures in the United States were largely in line with expectations, shifting investor attention fully to the earnings season. American banks, which kicked off the season yesterday, were generally not rewarded despite strong results. JPMorgan Chase dropped 0.3%, Wells Fargo fell 5.5%, and BlackRock declined 6%. The latter did boast record assets under management of 12,530 billion dollar, but managed to attract barely any new net inflows during the second quarter. Citigroup, on the other hand, rose 3.7%, benefiting from strong results in bond trading. Meanwhile in Europe, Renault (+1%) issued a post-market warning of a lower profit margin for this year.

In Hong Kong and Tokyo, indices are trading flat this morning. Over the coming weeks, we’ll see a steady stream of earnings results. This morning, Ontex lowered its full-year guidance following a weak first half, particularly due to strong competition in baby diapers in Europe—a problem that appears to be structural. Investors today will also be watching Johnson & Johnson, Sandvik, and Alcoa, the aluminum producer that for years traditionally opened earnings season in the United States.

Barco delivers a positive surprise

Investors were somewhat nervous about Barco’s results, but the first-half figures turned out better than expected. Revenue rose 5%, while EBITDA jumped to 48 million euro, a 36% increase. Although Barco raised prices in the US to offset the 10% import tariffs, it absorbed the cost for already placed orders. Order intake rose 5%, driven largely by a 27% increase in Europe. In the Enterprise division, top-performing product ClickShare delivered notably stronger results, while control rooms were the weakest segment, yet still posted a 50% increase in EBITDA. In the promising Healthcare division, EBITDA also surged 50%, and Entertainment (+17%) benefited from an improving cinema market using Barco projectors. Net profit rose from 9 to 23.3 million euro, or from 0.10 euro to 0.27 euro per share. For the full year, Barco is sticking with its somewhat vague forecast of “revenue growth and improved profit margin.”

Can ASML win over the skeptics?

Several analysts fear the current boom in the semiconductor market, especially driven by AI, may start to fade. But ASML announced 5.5 billion euro in new orders during the second quarter, a 41% increase, beating the average forecast of 4.8 billion euro. Notably, a Citigroup analyst had recently projected this exact figure. Overall, the reported results were in line or slightly better than expected, although the company’s guidance for Q3 came in below analyst expectations. ASML reaffirmed its full-year revenue growth outlook of 15%, but refrained from confirming its 2026 outlook due to external uncertainties.

Did you know…

that Alibaba rose 8% on Wall Street yesterday on news that Nvidia will still be allowed to export its China-specific chips? As a leading AI player, Alibaba is now assured access to sufficient high-performance chips.

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