Live Markets: Europe before the bell: Back to business

Novartis AG

08/09/2026 07:29

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EUROPE BEFORE THE BELL: BACK TO BUSINESS 
After a relatively contained session on Monday thanks to a U.S. public holiday, markets in Europe might see a more lively day on Tuesday. 
In the background is the building strength of the Japanese yen, which has gained more than 4% in the last week - its strongest week-on-week performance since July 2024. 
Its status as a low-yielder made it attractive for traders to borrow in yen to fund purchases of high-flying tech stocks and other assets. With that trade now fraying, along with global bond yields rising sharply, and the oil price nearing $100 again, stocks are struggling. European futures STXEc1, FFIc1, FDXc1 are all down around 0.2-0.3%.
In terms of individual stocks, Poste Italiane PST.MI has sweetened its takeover offer for Telecom Italia TLIT.MI as it seeks to secure control of Italy's former phone monopoly. Shares in both are down around 0.1% on Tradegate.
Dutch chip manufacturing tool company ASML ASML.AS says it plans to work with its customers to produce its most advanced kit for developing the kind of large data centre chips designed by Nvidia NVDA.O and others. Its shares are down 0.1% on Tradegate so far. 
Shares Novartis are down nearly 5% after the company said a late-stage study for its del-desiran drug, aimed at treating a form of muscle wasting, had not met a key metric. This is the second blow in a week for the Swiss pharma company, which on Monday saw its shares drop 3.1% after its cholesterol drug failed in a closely watched study. 
(Amanda Cooper)
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