Before the bell: from fear to buying frenzy

A temporary absence of war immediately sparks a market rally. Stocks surge and Delta Air Lines beats expectations.

An announcement of 14 days of peace. That is all it takes for investors worldwide to hit the buy button en masse. In Europe, a typical stock, as measured by the Euro Stoxx 50, rose by more than 5%. Leading the index were Infineon Technologies (+11.8%), Safran (+10.6%), Siemens (+10.2%), Schneider Electric (+9.7%) and ASML (+8.9%). In Brussels, the entire Bel20 board (+3.6%) turned green. Newcomer Aperam (+12.9%) led the charge. US indices also performed strongly, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq gaining 2.5% and 2.8% respectively. Across the Atlantic, Teradyne (+11.8%), Intel (+11.4%) and Carnival Corporation (+11.2%) were among the top gainers.

Asian markets are taking a breather this morning. In Japan, the Topix is down 0.9%, while in Hong Kong the Hang Seng Index slips 0.3%. In Belgium, investors will focus today on quarterly results from Fagron, while in Italy Ferrari publishes its annual report. In the United States, results are expected from WD-40 Company, and in Canada BlackBerry will report its figures.

Arm CEO takes on additional role at SoftBank

Rene Haas, the current CEO of Arm Holdings, will take on a new role within SoftBank Group, leading its semiconductor, artificial intelligence and potentially robotics division. Through this move, Masayoshi Son aims to accelerate the group’s ambitions in AI. SoftBank owns roughly 90% of Arm, and Haas will retain his CEO role. Arm is a key pillar in SoftBank’s AI strategy. The stock has already risen more than 25% over the past month after Haas stated that Arm’s new AGI CPU chip could increase the company’s revenue fivefold. Haas is no newcomer to the sector, having worked at Nvidia prior to joining Arm in 2013.

Delta Air Lines barely affected by higher fuel costs

Like many other stocks, Delta Air Lines (+3.8%) also moved higher yesterday. However, the airline’s share price would likely have risen even without the ceasefire. Delta reported strong quarterly results, with revenue reaching 15.9 billion dollar—an increase of nearly 13% year-on-year. The company exceeded its own guidance and remains optimistic about the outlook. Delta was one of the first airlines to introduce fuel surcharges and raise ticket prices as oil prices surged due to the Middle East conflict. In addition, Delta operates its own oil refinery, allowing it to partially offset fuel costs. This strategy has clearly paid off.

Did you know…

that Iran is seeking to charge 1 dollar per barrel of oil passing through the Strait of Hormuz? The country wants the toll to be paid in a digital currency to avoid potential seizure of funds.

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