Singles' Day success for L'Oreal

L'Oreal was among a host of European companies celebrating a successful Singles' Day, the largest shopping day in the world.

Along with Nestle, Givenchy and others, the French personal care company made over 100 million yuan ($14.2 million) in sales, according to Alibaba data, in the first hour alone. 

Singles' Day brought in a record 268.4 billion yuan ($38.38 billion) in sales, more than six times the amount of online sales made in the United States on Black Friday last year.

The 24-hour shopping bonanza was kicked off by a live performance from pop star Taylor Swift followed by the live-streamed marketing of over 1,000 brands. 

German discounters - Aldi and Lidl - continued to gain ground on their British competitors in the latest 12-week period, achieving a combined market share of 13.9% of the UK supermarket sector.  

Asda, that is owned by Walmart, suffered a 1.2 percent drop in sales while Tesco sales fell 0.6 percent, Sainsbury's 0.2 percent and Morrisons 1.7 percent. 

In contrast Lidl's rose 8.8 percent and Aldi 6.7 percent. The German pair are also expected to open a host of new stores in the coming months, piling pressure on the traditional British 'big four.'

Vodafone shakes off its Indian woes 

Vodafone, the world's second largest mobile operator, increased its full-year earnings guidance, displaying it's improving organic growth trends as difficult markets in Spain and Italy start to ease and it integrates its recent German cable acquisition.

The company reported organic service revenue growth of 0.3 percent in the first half, as it returned to growth in the second quarter thanks to improvements in South Africa, Spain and Italy and a solid retail performance in Germany.

The results will be welcome to the telecoms company after it was hit with billions of dollars in penalties for its dealings in India, where a supreme court ruling means the company will be required to pay retrospective fees, interest and fines.

European Union officials are hopeful that US President Donald Trump will announce this week he is delaying a decision on whether to slap tariffs on cars and auto parts imported from the EU, for another six months.

"We have a solid indication from the administration that there will not be tariffs on us this week," one EU official told Reuters. 

The Trump administration has a Thursday deadline to decide whether to impose threatened "Section 232" national security tariffs of as much as 25% on imported vehicles and parts under a Cold War-era trade law. 

EU officials said, while a further six-month delay was likely, Trump's actions were unpredictable and he could keep the threat of car tariffs hanging over them as the United States and the European Union continue trade negotiations in 2020.

"We believe that nothing will happen for now, but the threat of tariffs will be left there as leverage," said a European diplomat.

Wait and see… 

The markets have moved into a cautious mode as friction over trade negotiations seems to have eased. Traders are optimistic that a phase-one deal will be signed off this side of Christmas, but there are risks they can't ignore that things could go wrong. 

"US Stocks appear stuck in a holding pattern until we get a meaningful trade update," said Edward Moya and OANDA. 

The likelihood of a hung parliament in the UK lessened slightly after the Brexit Party said it would not contest seats the Conservatives are defending in the upcoming General Election, instead targetting anti-Brexit candidates. The pound jumped sharply against the dollar when Brexit party leader Nigel Farage announced this strategy, with a similar gain against the euro to €1.1684. Traders expect more price swings, reflecting a wariness among investors around anticipating any particular election outcome so early on in the campaign. 

Oil prices are struggling as the market awaits news of trade talks. On the supply side, Saudi Arabia raised its oil output in October but kept supplies below its OPEC output target. OPEC+ has cut output by 1.2 million barrels per day since January under a deal set to last until March 2020, will next meet in early December. 

Gold has been steadily selling off with long-term investors jumping in. Bloomberg reports that the culprit was the futures market where huge volumes were traded -  3 million ounces (or over 30,000 congrats) changed hands in half an hour.