[MARKET ANALYSIS] Sentiment across European/US equity futures boosted amidst US-Iran optimism

European bourses (STOXX 600 +1.3%) are entirely in the green this morning, amidst US-Iran peace optimism. This has been spurred after US President Trump announced that “Project Freedom” would be paused for a short period to see whether or not the agreement with Iran can be finalised and signed, however the blockade will remain in full force and effect. In the midst of all this Pakistani journalist Mallick, based on his understanding, outlined that he would not be surprised to see an Iranian proposal to the US, “soon”. European sectors are entirely in the green, except for Energy and Utilities; the latter, unsurprisingly, is hampered by losses in underlying oil prices. The top of the pile consists of Basic Resources (lifted by strength in metals prices), Autos and Consumer Products. The Autos sector has been driven higher by post-earning strength in BMW (+5%, beat exp. but faced fierce price competition in China) and Continental (+5.5%, Q1 results topped exp. and confirmed guidance). The Consumer Products sector has benefited from gains in jewellery-name Pandora (+9%) after Q1 revenue beat estimates, but did experience weakness across North America and Europe. Other key movers: Novo Nordisk (+7.5%, significant beat on Revenue and Wegovy sales impress; guidance lifted), Diageo (+4.4%, Q3 sales growth beat but saw weak US sales), Infineon (U/C, strong Q2 due to AI boom, and lifted FY outlook), Equinor (-4%, top-line miss whilst profit beat). US equity futures are entirely in the green, following the geopolitical-related optimism seen in Europe; the NQ (+0.7%) outperforms vs ES/RTY (+0.3%), thanks to pre-market strength in AMD (+17%). The chip-maker beat on its headline metrics, and guidance came in stronger than forecast, driven by accelerating data centre growth and strong demand for processors and GPU shipments. Further lifting Tech sentiment is a piece in The Information, outlining that Anthropic committed to spend USD 200bln with Google Cloud over five years under a recent agreement.