Euronext considers adding Madrid bourse to portfolio

Euronext, which owns the Paris and Amsterdam stock exchanges, has revealed it is in talks to add the Madrid bourse. A Euronext statement on Monday says the discussions with Spanish exchange operator Bolsas y Mercados Espanoles SA, currently valued at $2.3 billion, may not necessarily lead to an offer. 

It is understood that Euronext, which bought the Dublin exchange in 2018 and the Oslo bourse this year, is also weighing up a bid for Milan's Borsa Italiana. In 2007 Euronext merged with the New York Stock Exchange, but spun off again in 2014. 

EU-probed Microsoft toughens data protection 

Microsoft has announced it will update privacy provisions in its commercial cloud contracts, having fallen foul of European Union data protection law. The EU data watchdog EDPS started investigating in April to check whether Microsoft's contracts with the European Commission and other EU institutions satisfied data protection laws, and raised concerns in October about compliance. A Microsoft statement said "We will increase our data protection responsibilities for a subset of processing that Microsoft engages in when we provide enterprise services."

UK election keeping homes off the market

The number of new properties entering the UK housing market is falling at its fastest rate in a decade as potential vendors await next month's general election. Property website Rightmove reported that the number of new listings in October dropped by 13.5 percent year-on-year, the steepest monthly slump since August 2009. It is thought that many houseowners are waiting to see if the next government changes the level of stamp duty, with potentially significant savings on moving costs.

ECB VP says low interest rates weaken European banks

European Central Bank Vice President Luis de Guindos has warned that weak profitability is a key vulnerability of the eurozone's bank sector and that low central bank interest rates will only weaken lenders' earnings prospects. "The recent softening of the macroeconomic growth outlook and the associated low-for-longer interest rate environment are likely to weigh further on their profitability prospects," de Guindos told a conference. "Many market analysts are concerned about the drag on bank profitability that could result from the negative impact of monetary policy accommodation on net interest margins."

Are we nearly there yet?

There is a lot of good news priced into global financial markets but European stocks are expected to open flat: the markets seem to have zoned out from the lack of progress on the drawn-out and unresolved US-China trade talks. Every twist and turn used to get the markets jiggy, but don't expect any juicy action until a time, date and place is set for Phase One to be finally signed off.

Markets on edge

US markets closed at record highs last week, but that hasn't carried through to Asia overnight as the economic damage from Australian wildfires is assessed and as Hong Kong's violent protests look to dominate the headlines.

"At this point, the economy is the least of the concerns for both residents and observers," said Craig Erlam at OANDA, "but a place once viewed as being stable and peaceful is looking increasingly less appealing for investors, who may continue to pull cash out."

Alibaba drops

Reports have put the size of the Alibaba IPO at $10 billion to $15 billion, down from the earlier rumored $20 billion. 

While the online retail giant had a big publicity win last week with a record-breaking shopping bonanza, tech journalist Jon Russell says the company actually made a loss. "Don't be fooled by the big numbers (yes $38B is BIG), the major growth times are over for Alibaba's Singles Day," he said in a tweet.

Where's your manifesto?

In the UK, election campaigning continues but since neither of the two major parties has released a manifesto, the markets are feeding off various scraps of news ahead of big debates this week. Brexit will likely feature prominently.