Europe markets open to close: Stoxx, FTSE, DAX

Swiss building materials firm Holcim topped the Stoxx 600 index in early trade, gaining 5% after announcing plans to spin off its North American business in a New York flotation.

The spinoff could value the new company at around $30 billion, CEO Jan Jenisch said, with Holcim retaining no stake.

“Our North American business is a real rock star. We doubled the company just in the last four years by strong organic growth, by acquisitions. And we have leading margins, the EBITDA margin is already above 27%,” Jenisch told CNBC on Monday.

“Now I’m happy we can kick off the next level of performance for the business to take it to $20 billion of sales. We want to separate it to have more focus on the North American customers, on getting all the synergies from our supply chain.”

The company also announced that Miljan Gutovic, currently head of Europe at Holcim, will replace Jenisch as CEO from May 1.

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— Jenni Reid

European markets are heading for a slightly lower open, IG data showed.

The U.K.’s FTSE 100 is seen down 9.6 points at 7,636, with Germany’s DAX down 42.5 points at 16,918. France’s CAC 40 is set to slip 3.8 points to 7,633, while Italy’s MIB is looking to buck the trend with a 5 point rise to 30,546.

— Jenni Reid

Oil prices advanced after missiles launched by Iran-backed militants killed U.S. troops in Jordan.

Global benchmark Brent traded 0.35% higher at $83.84 a barrel Monday, while the U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures rose 0.42% to $78.34 per barrel.

According to the White House, three U.S. service members were killed in an unmanned aerial drone attack on forces stationed in a northeast Jordan outpost near the Syria border on Sunday.

—Lee Ying Shan

Hong Kong-listed shares of Evergrande plunged 12.2% in early trading before being halted on Monday as a Hong Kong court order the liquidation of the Chinese real estate developer.

Once one of the country’s largest property developers, Evergrande has been enveloped in the Beijing’s debt crisis in recent years.

The world’s most indebted property developer defaulted in 2021 and announced an offshore debt restructuring program in March last year.

Before the ruling, the Wall Street Journal reported that Evergrande’s overseas creditors failed to reach an 11th-hour deal this weekend to restructure, which could mean an imminent liquidation for the real estate

— Shreyashi Sanyal

While demand for artificial intelligence applications is seeing rapid growth, several non-tech companies are well-positioned to benefit directly from the AI boom over the next few years, according to Scotiabank.

Analysts from the Canadian bank’s investment banking division named six stocks that are well-positioned to capitalize on the surging demand.

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— Ganesh Rao

Six of the 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average will be releasing their quarterly results this week.

Microsoft will be reporting its earnings on Tuesday after the bell. Boeing, which has been battered by issues with its 737 Max 9 planes, will be posting its quarterly earnings Wednesday morning.

On Thursday, Honeywell and Merck will be reporting, followed by Apple after the bell. Chevron will be announcing its results Friday morning.

— Hakyung Kim