Twitter and corporate personalities demand investor attention

Twitter is the main focus of the exchanges this week. The takeover of the messaging service by Tesla CEO Elon Musk appears to have now been called off after Musk has indicated he does not want to continue. The world’s richest man says Twitter has not adhered to the terms of the takeover, but Twitter has announced that it wants to force the takeover through the courts.

Investor interest continues to shift from macro data to corporate data this week as the mid-year earnings season begins with caution. In the Netherlands, navigation service provider TomTom and waste processor Renewi, among others, are coming with updates.

In the United States, as usual, Delta Air Lines and a chain of banks were among the companies that opened the books first. In Europe, fashion brand Burberry and networking equipment maker Ericsson, among others, are creating numbers.

Corporate data also gives investors an idea of ​​whether the economy is cooling. Due to high inflation and interest rate interventions by central banks, traders are increasingly fearful of a recession. If companies now also report declining sales or new orders, those concerns will only increase.

The Fed has already raised interest rates by 0.75 percentage points and appears to be heading for another rate hike. The European Central Bank has ended its asset purchase program and faces its first rate hike in years. In general, a small 0.25 percentage point move is still taken into account, but there are more and more votes in favor of immediately adding 0.5 percentage point above the rate.

Investors are looking for, among other things, inflation figures for this rate increase. France and Germany will provide final data for June, and the US will publish currency depreciation for June. US producer prices are also on the agenda this week.

Moreover, oil and gas prices are once again being closely watched. Oil prices fell sharply last week, but rose again after that. Gas prices continue to rise. The fact that the Nord Stream pipeline from Russia to Germany is shutting down for maintenance this week will ensure that there is no air for the time being. It is possible to return the turbines to this pipeline. So Germany is undermining the sanctions against Russia.