European defence company shares fall amid Ukraine peace talk hopes; Novo Nordisk reports Ozempic fails to help with Alzheimer’s – business live | Business

European defence firm shares and gasoline costs fall after US and Ukraine focus on peace planEuropean defence firm shares have dropped in the beginning of buying and selling, and wholesale gasoline value are down too, after officers from Washington and Kyiv held weekend talks in Geneva over methods to finish the Ukraine-Russia conflict.Final evening, the US and Ukraine stated they’d created an “up to date and refined peace framework” to finish the conflict with Russia, after a row over an unique US-backed doc that included lots of Moscow’s calls for.The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, stated he was “very optimistic” in regards to the progress of the talks in Switzerland.Rubio informed reporters:
“I feel we made an incredible quantity of progress.
We’ve actually moved ahead, so I really feel very optimistic that we’re going to get there in a really cheap time frame, very quickly.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of workers, Andriy Yermak, additionally sounded constructive, saying the edges had made “excellent progress”, and had been “shifting ahead to the simply and lasting peace Ukrainian folks deserve”.Ukraine’s European allies printed their very own Kyiv-friendly plan on Sunday. It says negotiations over territory ought to happen after a ceasefire is agreed and will begin from the road of contact – the prevailing frontline.The conflict continued over the weekend, although, with a Russian drone strike on the most important Ukrainian metropolis of Kharkiv killing 4 folks and wounding 17 on Sunday.Hopes that the Geneva talks might result in a breakthough to finish the talks – resulting in fewer weapons gross sales – knocked German defence agency Rheinmettal down by 3.5% in the beginning of buying and selling.Renk, which makes propulsion and drivetrain parts for navy autos, are down over 4%.In London, defence contractor Babcock’s shares have dropped by 1.4%, whereas BAE Techniques dipped 1% on the open.Seperately, Bloomberg experiences that European pure gasoline costs have hit an 18 month low at present.They are saying:
European pure gasoline dropped beneath €30 a megawatt-hour for the primary time in additional than a 12 months amid discussions a couple of potential finish to Russia’s conflict in Ukraine.
Benchmark futures hit the bottom ranges since Could 2024. That they had been buying and selling in a slender band for weeks as merchants weighed the area’s ample provides in opposition to incessantly shifting climate forecasts, assessing whether or not there’ll be sufficient gasoline to get via winter.
ShareUpdated at 03.39 ESTKey eventsShow key occasions onlyPlease activate JavaScript to make use of this featureUK life insurers might climate extreme downturnKalyeena MakortoffMeanwhile within the UK, the nation’s largest life insurers together with Aviva, Authorized & Basic, Scottish and Phoenix, might climate a “extreme” market downturn, in line with the Financial institution of England’s newest stress checks.The checks put the life insurers’ stability sheet via a core state of affairs of “extreme monetary market stress” involving a drop in rates of interest, tumbling inventory costs and property values, and a bounce in borrowing prices for corporations that led. to credit score downgrades and defaults.New paperwork launched on Monday broke down the combination outcomes launched by the Financial institution final week, and confirmed that the strongest performers had been Rothesay, Pension Insurance coverage Corp and Aviva’s subsidiary Aviva Worldwide Insurance coverage.M&G’s Prudential Assurance, Phoenix Group’s Phoenix Life arm, and Simply Group’s Partnership Life Assurance Firm, had the bottom capital positions after being put via the checks.Whereas this was the third-ever UK life insurer stress check, it’s the first time firm-specific outcomes have been printed by the Financial institution.Nevertheless, the regulator defined this was “not a pass-fail train”, and in contrast to the Financial institution of England’s stress checks for prime avenue lenders, this might not affect capital necessities or buffers for all times insurers.Within the combination outcomes printed final week, the BoE’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) stated:
“The PRA continues to anticipate all companies to take care of strong danger administration capabilities, together with use of their very own stress and state of affairs testing, to check their resilience to a variety of draw back eventualities and to tell their capital planning.”
ShareBack in Brussels, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has stated the European Union wants to alter its digital rules so as to get a deal to decrease metal and aluminum tariffs.“We’re speaking to them about” rolling again EU tech guidelines, Lutnick stated in an interview with Bloomberg Tv. “In trade for that, we’ll provide you with a cool metal and aluminum deal.”As reported this morning, Lutnick and US Commerce Consultant Jamieson Greer had been in Brussels on Monday for his or her first official go to since reaching a commerce take care of the EU in July.Lutnick made clear any deal on metal or aluminum is contingent on the EU rolling again a few of its rules on main American tech corporations. Lutnick and Greer met with EU know-how czar Henna Virkkunen on Monday to debate the difficulty.Lutnick says:
“The concept is that if they take the foot off this regulatory framework and make it extra inviting for our corporations, they’ll get the good thing about a whole lot of billions, probably one trillion of funding.”
ShareNovo Nordisk’s shares have dropped to their lowest stage since July 2021, Reuters reporter.ShareNovo Nordisk shares fall after Alzheimer’s trial resultNewsflash: Shares in Danish prescription drugs large Novo Nordisk have tumbled round 10% after it reported that the most recent trials of its Alzheimer’s remedy didn’t present a “statistically vital” discount in development of the illness.In a disappointing improvement, Novo says that two trials of its semaglutide drug had failed to indicate that it slowed cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s sufferers.Novo says that remedy with semaglutide did end in enchancment of Alzheimer’s disease-related biomarkers in each trials, however this didn’t translate right into a delay of illness development.Semaglutide is offered below the model names Wegovy and Ozempic, as anti-obesity and diabetes medication, so Alzheimer’s remedy would have been a brand new use for the drug. A earlier research had instructed it might play a task right here:Martin Holst Lange, chief scientific officer and govt vice chairman of Analysis and Growth at Novo Nordisk, says:
“Based mostly on the numerous unmet want in Alzheimer’s illness in addition to quite a few indicative information factors, we felt we had a duty to discover semaglutide’s potential, regardless of a low chance of success. We’re proud to have performed two well-controlled part 3 trials in Alzheimer’s illness that meet the very best requirements of analysis and rigorous methodology,.
“We sincerely thank all members and their caregivers for his or her significant contributions. Whereas semaglutide didn’t show efficacy in slowing the development of Alzheimer’s illness, the in depth physique of proof supporting semaglutide continues to supply advantages for people with kind 2 diabetes, weight problems, and associated comorbidities.”
ShareUpdated at 07.23 ESTUK authorities bonds and the pound are each calm at present, because the Metropolis awaits the funds in two days time.However there could possibly be ructions on Wednesday, if buyers are dissatisfied by Rachel Reeves’s fiscal plans.A key focus will likely be how a lot headroom the chancellor creates to maintain inside the authorities’s fiscal mandate (for the present funds to be in stability in 2029-30). On the final funds, she was solely assembly this aim by £9.9bn, not sufficient to soak up many shocks.Neil Wilson, UK investor strategist at Saxo Markets, warns that Reeves might face a ‘tantrum’ within the bond market:
Weekend press experiences recommend Rachel Reeves will finish the two-child profit cap. This may elevate welfare spending within the quick time period not less than.
She’s promising to crack down on profit fraud and deal with welfare reform in return, however banking in the marketplace giving her a free go on that appears dangerous. Given the federal government has persistently didn’t push via any reforms or cuts, to imagine it could actually impose restraint in 2029/30 is scarcely plausible. As somebody put it on the weekend, each authorities meets its fiscal guidelines but we’re slowly bust.
Shopping for again some credibility from the market and decreasing the premium the UK pays (and so getting some additional headroom with out painful tax hikes that squeeze increasingly more of the best parts of the economic system), requires robust medication now and jam tomorrow, not at present.
For a Chancellor who has hung her credibility cap on the bond markets, a tantrum could possibly be very harmful certainly.
ShareAn index monitoring European defence shares has fallen to its lowest stage since July, down 2.2% at present.ShareShares in Ferrexpo, a serious exporter of iron ore pellets for the metal business, have jumped by a fifth this morning on hopes of a Ukraine-Russia breakthrough.Ferrexpo operatees three mines and a manufacturing facility in Ukraine, and has been badly disrupted by the conflict. Initially of the battle its shipments had been disrupted after export services on the port of Pivdennyi within the south-west of Ukraine had been suspended.Disruption has continued ever since; earlier this month it suspended operations at two subsidiaries, following an assault on Ukrainian transmission infrastructure.This morning, following the weekend talke in Geneva, Ferrexpo’s shares are up 21% at 69.78p.ShareCBI requires braveness over funds tax risesOver at London’s Queen Elizabeth II Centre, the top of the Confederation of British Business is urging Rachel Reeves to show that she is dedicated to development on this week’s funds.CBI CEO Rain Newton-Smith is telling the group’s annual assembly that the federal government should deal with development, and keep away from changing into locked in “a stop-start economic system.”Newton-Smith says many companies are involved this 12 months’s Finances will likely be a repeat of 2024, which included tax rises in companies. And she or he is urging Rachel Reeves to indicate the “braveness to take two robust selections fairly than twenty simpler ones” in terms of tax.She says:
If development is your precedence, show it – make onerous decisions for it. In opposition to opposition, in opposition to short-term politics. Be it welfare, be it pensions will increase – present the markets you imply enterprise. All short-term politics results in is long-term decline… and this nation can’t afford one other decade of stagnation.
“Meaning making onerous decisions for development now – earlier than they get tougher. Having the braveness to take two robust selections fairly than twenty simpler ones. Elevating the headroom to make guarantees stick. It means one or two broad tax rises, fairly than loss of life by a thousand taxes. Twenty unhealthy decisions don’t make system. It means cease being outlined by the previous – personal the challenges of at present.”
Reeves, although, is assumed to have backed away from elevating revenue tax charges, and is as a substitute anticipated to announce a flurry of smaller tax rises to shut a fiscal black gap and create extra headroom for the federal government to hit its fiscal targets.The CBI will even hear from Peter Kyle, Secretary of State for enterprise and commerce, and Kemi Badenoch, Chief of the Opposition, this morning.Our Politics liveblog is overlaying all of the motion:ShareUpdated at 05.13 ESTThe oil value is on monitor for its fourth day by day fall in a row.Brent crude has dipped by 0.7% at present to $62.08 a barrel.Nadir Belbarka, analyst at XMArabia, says the oil market stays caught between increasing international output and heightened geopolitical volatility.
​Latest disruptions—reminiscent of drone strikes on Russian export hubs, covert U.S. exercise in Venezuela, and delivery safety issues—have sporadically pushed value spikes of two–3% in single classes.
API stock information displaying a 4.4 million-barrel construct final week additional illustrates that bodily fundamentals stay tilted towards surplus, tempering long-term upside except main manufacturing cuts or extreme provide shocks happen.
ShareUpdated at 05.35 ESTGerman enterprise morale falls as corporations lose religion in recoveryGerman enterprise morale has unexpectedly fallen this month, as corporations lose hope on a restoration of the German economic system following two years of contraction.The Ifo institute has reported that its enterprise local weather index fell to 88.1 in November from 88.4 in October, weaker than anticipated. It’s a blow to German chancellor Friedrich Merz’s efforts to revive development via a serious spending package deal.Ifo president Clemens Fuest warns:
“Firms have little religion {that a} restoration is coming anytime quickly.”
Carsten Brzeski, international head of macro at ING, says the survey paints a bleak image of Germany’s economic system as the tip of the 12 months approaches.The issue, Brzeski explains, is that German policymakers nonetheless haven’t discovered a convincing reply to the structural challenges dealing with their economic system:
Like U2 sang virtually 40 years in the past: the German economic system nonetheless hasn’t discovered what it’s searching for.
The 12 months 2025 has been one other 12 months of hope and dissatisfied optimism. A 12 months which noticed pleasure and enthusiasm sparked by Germany’s unprecedented fiscal coverage U-turn and its resolution to take a position considerably in infrastructure and defence this spring. But in addition a 12 months that introduced a impolite awakening and a cringing feeling as we watched the brand new authorities undermine the constructive affect of fiscal stimulus with clumsy budgetary selections, new political tensions, and an absence of structural reforms.
The temper in Germany soured and optimism floor to a halt – and never simply due to US tariffs or a stronger euro, each of which complicate issues for the export business.
ShareDespite the drag from the defence sector, Britain’s inventory market is on monitor for its third day by day acquire in a row.The FTSE 100 index is up 18 factors or 0.2% at 9556 factors, extending a rally that started final Thursday (after falling for the earlier 5 classes).Sentiment has improved after a high US Federal Reserve official stated on Friday that rates of interest can fall “within the close to time period”, which has bolstered hopes of an rate of interest minimize subsequent month.New York Fed President John Williams argued that rates of interest might fall with out placing the Fed’s inflation aim in danger, whereas serving to guard in opposition to a slide within the job market.ShareUpdated at 04.27 ESTEU’s Šefčovič experiences ‘constructive’ talks with US officialsLisa O’CarrollEU’s commerce commissioner Maroš Šefčovič has stated he has had “constructive” talks with US commerce consultant Jamieson Greer yesterday and US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick this morning.However he stated “extra work lies forward” to scale back tariffs “particularly on metal and metal derivatives”.He informed reporters on the way in which right into a summit of 27 commerce ministers that they might additionally “focus on our relationships with China” and a shared aim of “securing dependable provides” in crucial minerals”.
“We additionally recognise that extra work lies forward particularly on metal and derivatives, the place we search each to scale back tariffs and to confront international capability”.
Greer and Lutnick will meet all 27 commerce ministers at lunch time at present and also will maintain talks with enterprise leaders and two different commissioners, together with Henna Virkunnen who’s accountable for the tech sector and defence commissioner Andrius Kubilius.ShareEU-US commerce deal talks todayLisa O’CarrollEfforts to steer Donald Trump to slash his punitive 50% tariff on metal and a whole lot of merchandise with a component of metal from knitting needles to wind generators must be seen within the context of the current battle with China over chips, EU commerce ministers have stated.They might even be impacted by the US’s broadly criticised peace proposals for Ukraine with fears that the EU’s pushback on Trump’s plan might impinge on talks his commerce group will maintain in Brussels at present.EU commerce ministers assembly in Brussels at present hope to steer US commerce consultant Jamieson Greer and commerce secretary Howard Lutnick that they need to work collectively in opposition to China and cut back the punitive 50% tariffs on metal and type a united entrance “ringfencing” the US and bloc in opposition to low-cost imports.“We’re in a vital second in transatlantic relations,” Polish commerce Michał Baranowski stated.“We’re all watching very carefully what’s going on in Geneva and right here it’s clear that our financial and political relations must go hand in hand,” he informed reporters on the way in which right into a summit of the EU’s 27 commerce ministers.Danish commerce minister Morten Bødskov has stated at present’s assembly was about how they’ll “fulfill the implementation of the joint assertion” setting out the tariff deal in late August “and stabilise commerce relations between Europe and US”.However he added:
“Additionally it is an amazing alternative to debate the issues we’ve in widespread, the worldwide commerce system, China and so forth.”
ShareEuropean defence firm shares and gasoline costs fall after US and Ukraine focus on peace planEuropean defence firm shares have dropped in the beginning of buying and selling, and wholesale gasoline value are down too, after officers from Washington and Kyiv held weekend talks in Geneva over methods to finish the Ukraine-Russia conflict.Final evening, the US and Ukraine stated they’d created an “up to date and refined peace framework” to finish the conflict with Russia, after a row over an unique US-backed doc that included lots of Moscow’s calls for.The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, stated he was “very optimistic” in regards to the progress of the talks in Switzerland.Rubio informed reporters:
“I feel we made an incredible quantity of progress.
We’ve actually moved ahead, so I really feel very optimistic that we’re going to get there in a really cheap time frame, very quickly.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of workers, Andriy Yermak, additionally sounded constructive, saying the edges had made “excellent progress”, and had been “shifting ahead to the simply and lasting peace Ukrainian folks deserve”.Ukraine’s European allies printed their very own Kyiv-friendly plan on Sunday. It says negotiations over territory ought to happen after a ceasefire is agreed and will begin from the road of contact – the prevailing frontline.The conflict continued over the weekend, although, with a Russian drone strike on the most important Ukrainian metropolis of Kharkiv killing 4 folks and wounding 17 on Sunday.Hopes that the Geneva talks might result in a breakthough to finish the talks – resulting in fewer weapons gross sales – knocked German defence agency Rheinmettal down by 3.5% in the beginning of buying and selling.Renk, which makes propulsion and drivetrain parts for navy autos, are down over 4%.In London, defence contractor Babcock’s shares have dropped by 1.4%, whereas BAE Techniques dipped 1% on the open.Seperately, Bloomberg experiences that European pure gasoline costs have hit an 18 month low at present.They are saying:
European pure gasoline dropped beneath €30 a megawatt-hour for the primary time in additional than a 12 months amid discussions a couple of potential finish to Russia’s conflict in Ukraine.
Benchmark futures hit the bottom ranges since Could 2024. That they had been buying and selling in a slender band for weeks as merchants weighed the area’s ample provides in opposition to incessantly shifting climate forecasts, assessing whether or not there’ll be sufficient gasoline to get via winter.
ShareUpdated at 03.39 ESTAnglo shares dropShares in Anglo American have dropped by round 1% in early buying and selling, as Metropolis buyers react to BHP’s resolution to provoke merger talks, after which stroll away.The scenario doesn’t appear to disrupt Anglo’s current plans to merge with Canadian rival Teck Sources.However maybe there was a lingering hope that the Teck deal might need flushed out a bidder.As my colleague Nils Pratley wrote, astutely, in September:
The construction… appears to be like like an open invitation to larger rivals to bid for both Anglo and Teck, each of whom have seen off wannabe consumers in recent times.
ShareKaan Peker, analyst with RBC in Sydney, has stated (through CNBC) that BHP’s newest method for Anglo appears to be like ‘slightly messy’:
“There’s most likely a handful of occasions when belongings like this are up on the market, so BHP could as properly assess if the choice is open. However it does look slightly messy from the BHP facet.
ShareUpdated at 02.50 ESTBHP’s second failed method for Anglo American doesn’t recommend fears in regards to the international financial outlook, argues Kathleen Brooks, analysis director at XTB, who says:
There was additionally M&A information over the weekend. BHP made one other supply for FTSE 100 miner Anglo American.
The UK firm is already in a $50bn merger with Teck Sources, which was designed, partially, to rebuff takeover makes an attempt. BHP has now stated that it has walked away from the deal, nonetheless, if there was deep concern in regards to the international economic system, or the potential for a deep inventory market crash, then it could be unlikely to see any takeover makes an attempt, rebuffed or not, within the sources sector.
ShareOne banker has informed the Monetary Instances that it’s a shock that BHP had returned to the fray solely to surrender its chase for Anglo so shortly, saying:
“I believed they’d come again and end it. To return again and to not end it’s fairly wonderful.”
ShareIntroduction: BHP walks away from recent Anglo American tie-upGood morning, and welcome to our rolling protection of enterprise, the monetary markets and the world economic system.A mega-merger deal within the mining sector has briefly burst again into life, earlier than being dampened down.Final evening, information broke that mining group BHP had made a brand new takeover method to Anglo American, over a 12 months after its earlier wooing was rejected. This recent burst of enthusiasm threatened to disrupt Anglo’s plans to merge with Canadian rival Teck Sources, to create a £39bn international copper group, which has but to be authorized by shareholders.BHP, it was reported, was proposing a deal based mostly on a mixture of money and inventory to Anglo.However BHP’s new overtures seem to have been batted apart by Anglo, because it has now informed shareholders:
“Following preliminary discussions with the board of Anglo American, BHP confirms that it’s not contemplating a mixture of the 2 corporations.”
BHP insists {that a} deal would make sense, earlier than then arguing that it could actually cope positive with Anglo, saying:
While BHP continues to consider {that a} mixture with Anglo American would have had robust strategic deserves and created vital worth for all stakeholders, BHP is assured within the extremely compelling potential of its personal natural development technique.
Underneath Metropolis guidelines, BHP is now blocked from bidding for Anglo for six months, except there’s a change in circumstances.Again in 2024, BHP made three failed tried to agree a merger with Anglo, earlier than declaring in October that it had ‘moved on’.Given final 12 months’s rebuttal, and Anglo’s subsequent tie-up with Teck, BHP’s transfer is slightly shocking.As portfolio supervisor Andy Forster at Argo Investments in Sydney put it:
It’s a final throw of the cube for BHP.
I’m a bit stunned that, given the relative efficiency that they thought they’re ready to come back again and do one other deal and extract worth for shareholders.”
The agendaShare