Before the Bell: U.S. rate cut is a fact

With the first U.S. rate cut in place, investors are once again turning their attention to corporate earnings. In Belgium, both Cenergy Holdings and Biotalys reported results.

Yesterday, the Federal Reserve decided to lower interest rates. Eleven of the twelve board members voted in favor of a 25 basis point cut. The lone dissenter was Stephen Miran, a Trump appointee, who had pushed for a 50 basis point reduction. Attention now shifts to the Bank of England today and the Bank of Japan tomorrow. There was also positive news for Alphabet (-0.6%): according to the Financial Times, China has decided to end its probe into the dominant position of Google’s Android app on the world’s largest smartphone market. StubHub Holdings (-6.4%), on the other hand, stumbled in its U.S. market debut. The ticketing platform raised nearly 800 million dollar but closed lower at 22 dollar per share.

Nvidia (-2.6%) faced fresh headwinds from Asia. The Chinese government banned local tech companies from buying a specific Nvidia chip. Meanwhile, Huawei Technologies unveiled a new technology to cluster more AI chips together and boost computing power, positioning itself as a challenger. The Hang Seng Index slipped 0.4% this morning. In Belgium, agri-tech firm Biotalys reported a first-half loss of 8.1 million euro. Based on its current cash, the company will likely need to raise fresh funds in early 2026. Today’s reporting calendar also includes FactSet and delivery giant FedEx, while Belgian holding Brederode will release its half-year report tonight.

U.S. IPOs are hot again

Good news for investors who like to lace up their running shoes: Strava is reportedly preparing for an IPO in early 2026. Strava is one of the world’s most popular apps for fitness enthusiasts, particularly runners and cyclists. Founded in 2009, it now has more than 150 million users across 185 countries. Its goal is to track performance, share routes, and add a competitive edge to sports. The company was valued at 2.2 billion dollar in May. These days, U.S. IPOs are happening almost daily. StubHub raised nearly 800 million dollar yesterday, while WaterBridge Infrastructure collected 634 million dollar the same day. Cybersecurity firm Netskope debuts today, with its offering reportedly oversubscribed 20 times according to Bloomberg. Whether today’s other debuts—Regentis Biomaterials and Pattern Group—will be as successful remains to be seen. But the trend is clear: this is a hot moment for companies to raise capital.

Europe’s energy transition is partly Greek

We’ve highlighted this hidden Greek gem before. Oddly enough, it rarely gets coverage in Flemish media, even though it has been listed in Brussels for years: Cenergy Holdings. The group is active in large-scale cable and pipeline projects that play a key role in Europe’s energy transition. Despite that, it gets little investor attention. Cenergy generated more than 1 billion euro in revenue in the first half of 2025 and currently has a market capitalization of 2.4 billion euro. Once again, results were excellent: net profit surged 69% to 95 million euro, while EBITDA rose 43% to 171 million euro. The order backlog remained strong at 3.3 billion euro, including projects such as the Adriatica gas pipeline in Italy, a CO₂ storage pipeline in Liverpool Bay, and export cables for the Dunkerque Offshore Wind Farm in France. In the U.S., first steps are being taken to produce cables in Maryland. Still, Cenergy remains under the radar for many investors.

Did you know…

that Cenergy Holdings has risen 1,100% over the past five years on the Brussels exchange? Despite its Brussels listing, the Greek company has received little attention from Belgian investors. With a market value of 2.4 billion euro, however, it has been one of the best-performing stocks in Brussels in recent years.

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