The FTSE 100 ticked up a touch after a wobbly session on Monday amid a stack of fresh earnings updates, with Entain and Games Workshop leading gains after posting better-than-expected numbers. We’re also sifting through updates from Barclays, AstraZeneca and Greggs among others in another one of those silly busy earnings days. The blue chips added a modest 0.1% in early trade to 9,095, having traded up and down yesterday and finishing weaker.

European stock markets across the board gave up strong early gains on Monday as confidence around the EU-US trade deal gave way to concerns voiced in Paris and Berlin about the impact on the European economy. The euro fell, signalling investor concerns about 15% tariffs. Oil held onto big gains from yesterday after Trump shortened the timeline for Russia to strike a peace deal with Ukraine.

European stock markets are a bit firmer this morning again with the DAX up 0.8% and CAC rising 0.6%.Mixed views on tariffs – Stellantis down 4%, Phillips up 8%. Stellantis reported first half 2025 net revenues of €74.3bn down -13% YoY driven by declines in Europe and North America. The carmaker said it’s seeing improvements in volumes and revenue compared to H2 2024, and it expects to take €1.2bn hit from tariffs in second half of the year. Dutch health tech group Philips meanwhile jumped 14% at the open before trimming some gains after it flagged reduced US tariff impact, enabling it to raise its full-year margin guidance.

Are we topping out? European markets couldn’t sustain their early momentum on Monday, and after jumping at the open on EU-US trade deal optimism, the reality of the likely hit to trade and economic growth weighed on the markets to send the major indices lower for the day. The DAX was down 1% for the session and CAC and FTSE 100 faded 0.43%, erasing strong early gains. Overnight, Asian stocks were generally fell. Wall Street futures are firmer after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq again just about eked out fresh records but the momentum is clearly struggling as bulls look a little tired.

There are multiple fresh potential catalysts this week for the market to wait. A Fed meeting, US inflation and labour market data are among them, as is the earnings updates from Apple, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft, which are about 20% of the S&P 500.

We also still have some uncertainty over Trump’s policy manouevres. Buoyed by his victories on trade deals, President Trump cut his deadline for Russia to reach a peace deal with Ukraine to less than two weeks, after which he will impose tough new "secondary tariffs” on countries that trade with Moscow. Oil jumped and has largely held onto gains this morning. Meanwhile there are talks between the US and China ahead of the 12 August deadline,and chatter about a “world tariff” rate set at 15% by the US. Looking ahead, apart from trade talks the JOLTS job openings and CB Consumer Confidence reports from the US are the major macroeconomic events today. 

Companies

Barclays shares rose then fell after profits rose by a third in the second quarter but niggles about the investment bank weighed. The bank posted profits of £1.7bn in the last quarter, up from £1.2bn in the same period last year and ahead of the consensus estimate of £1.53bn. Revenues climbed 14% to £7.2bn, somewhat more than forecast. Revenues from the investment bank rose 10%, driven by the markets division and offset somewhat by the investment bank. UK retail bank did well thanks partly the Tesco acquisition with revenues up 12%, while the UK corporate business posting growth of 17%. Expenses were up 5% year-on-year, but the cost: income ratio of 59% was down from 63% a year before.   Barclays is at the midway point of a turnaround designed to return at least £10bn of capital to shareholders between 2024 and 2026, and seems well on track to do so, but investors are maybe punishing some of the investment bank’s performance.

AstraZeneca rose after it posted revenue growth of 11%, driven by a strong performance for its cancer treatments and biopharama drugs. Q2 revenues rose to $14.46bn, which was ahead of expectations. Core operating profit rose 13% in H1 and again the Q2 number was a beat. Management stuck to the guidance for the year, guiding for total Revenue to increase by a high single-digit percentage and core EPS to increase by a low double-digit percentage. Following the US investment decision announcement there was never going to be a major change to the target of achieving $80bn in total revenue by 2030, but the near-term performance looks encouraging if not blowing the lights out. Shares picked up about 1% early on.

Greggs stock fell after completing a tough first half of the year hit by lower footfall and warmer weather with profits down 7% despite a 7% increase in revenue. Total first-half sales were up 7.0%, with company-managed shop LFL sales up 2.6% and franchised shop LFL sales up 4.8%.  Operating profit was down 7.1% to £70.4 million, while profit before tax fell 14.3% to £63.5 million. Management blamed the weakness on challenging market footfall, more weather disruption than in 2024, and phasing of cost headwinds. The numbers are consistent with the 2 July trading update and management reiterated guidance for the year.

Elsewhere, Entain rallied 2% after BetMGM raised guidance and Games Workshop rallied after reporting a 30% rise in profits.

Finally on the UK scene for today –Filtronic shares dipped a bit after earnings. A lot had been baked into the stock already with gains of about 600% since the start of 2024. Revenues rose 121% for the year and operating profit surged 272%. It counts SpaceX,  Viasat, the European Space Agency, Airbus, Leonardo, Qinetiq and BAE among its customers. Very interesting strategic play cutting across the aerospace, defence, space and telecoms sectors.

In the US, reporting earnings pre-market are Boeing, PayPal, Procter & Gamble, Spotify and UnitedHealth Group. After the closing bell we have Booking Holdings, MARA Holdings, Mondelez, Starbucks, Teladoc and Visa.

Tomorrow on the FTSE we have several major updates

HSBC, HY 25 interim results: Q1 HSBC posted profit before tax down 25% on a year-on-year basis, while revenue fell 15%. Look for updates its possible sale of its Australian retail banking business, as well as something around the private credit business and more broadly around the impact of tariffs and US-China relations. Look for positivity around its Asian wealth management business, but interest rate cuts in Hong Kong could affect net interest income. For Q2, net profit is expected to decline 17% from a year earlier to $5.29 billion.

Glencore, HY 25 production report: Shares have had a tough time in 2025, down around 14%, but management may signal the start of a bounce back on higher expected production in the second half of the year, driven by copper output, which could materially increase earnings at the miner over the next 2-3 years. Also watch out for any talk about demerging the coal business – half-year results are due on 6 August.

BAE Systems, HY 25 interim results:  One of the major winners from the UK’s Strategic Defence and Security Review and European promises to spend more on defence. In May the company reiterated its full-year guidance of sales growth of 7-9% and EBIT growth of 8-10%.

GSK, Q2 results: The drugmaker hits earnings after being dealt a severe below last week from the US FDA’s Oncology Drugs Advisory Committee, which decided against approving its blood cancer drug Blenrep in two separate phase III trials. This is a major blow and shares sold off sharply but the stock has since recovered much of the lost ground. Blenrep is just one of 14 potential drugs that GSK thinks could be worth £2bn in sales and help it reach its goal of £40bn in annual sales by 2031. Look for any commentary around the rest for a guide – the loss of Blenrep US sales could be worth £1bn of that £40bn target.