Billions in turnover on the Warsaw Stock Exchange amid an American holiday and Novo Nordisk's breakout
The settlement of June contracts on the Polish market coincided with the absence of Americans who were celebrating Liberation Day. While index changes were limited, the scale of trading during Friday's session was impressive – the total turnover on the broad market reached 5.65 billion PLN, with nearly 5 billion PLN attributed to WIG20 companies.
A similar scale of changes can be discussed in the context of the rest of the Old Continent. Germany's DAX fell 0.16% during Friday's session, and France's CAC40 dropped 0.55%. Among European companies, Novo Nordisk stood out particularly positively.
The shares of the obesity drug manufacturer rose almost 5% after announcing a plan to create a European network of incubators working on innovative therapies. The initiative aims to support the process of turning scientific discoveries into commercial-ready projects.
Information warfare in the Strait of Hormuz and secret US‑Iran negotiations amid market reverberations
The automotive sector also performed well – media speculated that the European Commission plans to impose countervailing duties on Chinese hybrid‑powered cars. Meanwhile, on Sunday in Switzerland, the first round of direct peace negotiations between the US and Iran took place. Traditionally, tensions were unavoidable – on Saturday the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced a re‑closure of the Strait of Hormuz in response to Israeli attacks in Lebanon.
At the same time, according to information from the US Central Command (CENTCOM), 17 million barrels of oil were transported through Hormuz that day. Both sides, in addition to official negotiations, are also conducting an "information war" over control of this strategic waterway.
In the morning hours, satellite images indicated limited traffic in the strait, and information flowing from Switzerland suggested progress in talks and the possibility of continuing negotiations also on Monday. At the time of writing, sentiment on Asian markets remains slightly positive. The Hang Seng is down about 0.5%, while the KOSPI gains about 0.1%.
Nikkei shines in Asia, Europe waits for a signal
The Japanese Nikkei stands out positively, gaining about 1.7%, and the Indian Sensex strengthens by over 0.5%. Futures on European indices suggest a neutral opening.
The upcoming week in terms of macroeconomic data looks fairly calm. Considering the Fed's recent hawkish turn, a key calendar item will be Thursday's PCE inflation release in the US.
Today, investors will focus on the concluding first round of high‑level negotiations between the US and Iran.
