LIVE MARKETS-Before the bell: Europe meets midterms with a shrug

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BEFORE THE BELL: EUROPE MEETS MIDTERMS WITH A SHRUG

European shares were set to open slightly lower on Wednesday, as investors processed Democrats seizing control of both the US Senate and House on Tuesday.

Europe's tech sector, small in comparison with those in the US and Asia, will be one focus as trading gets going, given the possibility a Democratic-led Congress could exert greater scrutiny over AI companies, in part due to growing public opposition to data centres.

But a rotation out of chips could see gains for defensive sectors. European healthcare stocks could also see some activity.

US futures dropped sharply as the scale of the Democratic wave became clear, but those moves faded. S&P 500 futures were last down 0.1% and even Nasdaq 100 futures were down just 0.25%. Russel 2000 futures were 0.3% higher, suggestion a rotation rather than indiscriminate selling.

There's another batch of earnings to digest too.

Top of mind will be Novo Nordisk, NOVOb.CO whose Wegovy pill beat third-quarter sales forecasts on Wednesday, a test of whether the Danish drugmaker's new oral weight-loss drug can help it regain lost ground to rival Eli Lilly.

Traders are calling its shares up around 2% at the open.

They are calling BMW shares lower after its pre-tax earnings fell in line with expectations in the third quarter with hefty restructuring charges looming towards the end of the year. BMWG.DE

On the US market, shares in Elon Musk's Tesla TSLA.O and SpaceX SPCX.O were among the worst performers on Tradegate, both down around 5%, compared with losses of between 0.4% and 1.2% for other tech stocks, such as Microsoft MSFT.O, Alphabet GOOGL.O and Nvidia NVDA.O.

(Alun John)

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