Early premarket gappersGapping up:
- CCS +7%, BOOT +6%, TGI +5.3%, ZYNE +1%, GBX +0.9%
Gapping down:
- SYRS -24.6%, DLTH -20.1%, MACK -12.7%, AXGT -5.6%, XLRN -4%, WTRH -3.6%, CMRX -2.9%, PSB -1.7%, BZUN -1.6%, SMTC -1.2%, GOL -0.9%, BA -0.7%
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Edouard Philippe entrouvre la porte de la légalisation du cannabis thérapeutique
Le Premier ministre Edouard Philippe a estimé vendredi qu'il serait "absurde" de s'interdire d'étudier les possibilités du cannabis thérapeutique, lors d'un voyage en Creuse où une culture de cette plante à des fins médicales fait partie des projets de développement envisagés.
"Il y a beaucoup de pays qui travaillent là-dessus, beaucoup de pays qui le permettent. Il serait absurde de ne pas se poser la question et c'est dans cet esprit que nous voulons travailler avec les porteurs du projet", a-t-il expliqué à la presse.
Aujourd'hui, 21 pays de l'Union européenne autorisent le cannabis à usage thérapeutique, mais pas la France. "Ce qu'ont dit les porteurs de ce projet est qu'il ne fallait pas s'interdire d'imaginer l'utilisation à des fins thérapeutiques des molécules qui sont contenues par cette plante", a poursuivi M. Philippe.
Une filière cannabis dans la Creuse
"Donc évidemment, on doit pouvoir réfléchir à innover, à expérimenter en le faisant de façon très encadrée. Il ne s'agit pas du tout de mettre en péril la santé publique (...) Nous souhaitons effectuer les choses de façon très encadrée", a-t-il insisté, "vous pensez bien que l'avis des plus hautes autorités qui encadrent l'utilisation des médicaments est indispensable".
Ce projet de cannabis thérapeutique, comme l'un des axes de développement d'un des départements les plus pauvres de France, est emmené par Eric Corréia, président du Grand Guéret. Cet infirmier anesthésiste, formé à la prise en charge des douleurs, a rallié à sa cause d'autres élus locaux.
Edouard Philippe était en Creuse pour signer avec les élus locaux un plan pour la revitalisation du bassin d'emploi de la Creuse, initié par Emmanuel Macron en octobre 2017. Ce "plan particulier pour la Creuse" comprend ainsi la possibilité d'une "création d'une filière chanvre thérapeutique". Au total, 21 pays de l'Union européenne autorisent déjà le cannabis à usage thérapeutique, mais pas la France.
AB InBev, Stora Enso, Suez, Swiss Re in Focus: Europe Options
As the Stoxx Europe 600 Index was little changed, these were the index members with liquid options that saw interest from traders as of 12:30 p.m. Frankfurt time:
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AB InBev options volume 7.1x the 20-day average, with 27,055 calls changing hands vs 859 puts
- Stock up 2.2%, volume 0.5x the 20-day average for this time of day
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Suez options volume 4x the 20-day average, with 40 calls changing hands vs 2,106 puts
- Stock down 0.5%, volume 0.1x the 20-day average for this time of day
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Swiss Re options volume 3.3x the 20-day average, with 2,526 calls changing hands vs 34,706 puts
- Stock down 0.1%, volume 0.6x the 20-day average for this time of day
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Stora Enso options volume 2.9x the 20-day average, with 2,000 calls changing hands vs 131 puts
- Stock up 1.5%, volume 0.3x the 20-day average for this time of day
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Euro Stoxx 50 options volume 0.3x the 20-day average, with 177,808 calls changing hands vs 246,155 puts
- Cost of hedging as measured by the 90/110, one-month skew ranks in the 28th percentile over the past year
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Euro Stoxx Banks options volume 0.1x the 20-day average, with 17,764 calls changing hands vs 5,602 puts
- Cost of hedging as measured by the 90/110, one-month skew ranks in the 13th percentile over the past year
- VStoxx Index down 2.8%
-EU regulators charge BMW, Daimler, Volkswagen with emissions collusion - Reuters News
05-Apr-2019 11:54:42
Repeats to additional subscribers. No change to text
BRUSSELS, April 5 (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators charged BMW BMWG.DE, Daimler DAIGn.DE and Volkswagen VOWG_p.DE on Friday for hindering competition on emission cleaning technology between 2006 to 2014.
The European Commission said it had sent statements of objections setting out the charges to the companies, nearly two years after carrying out dawn raids at the their premises.
"BMW, Daimler and VW participated in a collusive scheme, in
breach of EU competition rules, to limit the development and roll-out of emission cleaning technology for new diesel and petrol passenger cars sold in the European Economic Area," the EU competition enforcer said.
The Italian bank is ready to pick up the pieces if an all-German merger fails
Welcome to Due Diligence, the FT’s daily deals briefing
UniCredit’s dealmaker cum chief executive Jean Pierre Mustier (pictured below) isn’t a man who gives up on things easily.
He last made a play for Commerzbank back in 2017; now, with talks on a Deutsche Bank/Commerz merger finally beginning, news reaches FT towers that the Italian bank is once again waiting in the wings.
A UniCredit/Commerz combination ticks more traditional M&A boxes, since it has the benefit of geographic diversification, while also offering greater scale in a key market by combining UniCredit’s German HVB business with Commerzbank’s domestic network.
It would also play well with regulators at the European Central Bank, who see a pan-eurozone bank merger as a far healthier systemic development than the creation of a too-big-too-fail German champion.
But the odds are still against the charismatic Frenchman.
Even though a Deutsche/Commerz deal would result in bigger job losses, it seems the favoured option among Germany’s rulers and is seen (perhaps aspirationally) as a way of securing Germany’s future as a global banking powerhouse.
Broader support at UniCredit for the deal is also unclear, leading to serious execution risk should Commerz entertain a second suitor.
Apple may be cooking up some big deals
Not so long ago, when the US was gearing up for a tax overhaul that would liberate the huge cash reserves the leading technology companies held offshore, it became fashionable to predict what Apple might do with its billions of dollars.
Buying streaming leaders Netflix and Spotify figured high up on most lists, along with Tesla. But Apple didn’t pull the trigger on any big deals: its biggest acquisition last year was the $600m it paid for parts of Dialog Semiconductor, which already supplied power management chips for the iPhone.
Things may be about to change. This week Apple revealed that head of M&A Adrian Perica now reports directly to chief executive Tim Cook, having previously been under chief financial officer Luca Maestri. The change elevated Perica on to the leadership page on Apple’s website and into public attention.
As head of corporate development Perica, who joined Apple in 2009, was already in charge of acquisitions. But the new line to the top sends an obvious signal.
Perica came to Apple from Goldman Sachs. Deals and investments he has been involved in include the acquisition of headphone maker Beats in 2014 (still Apple’s biggest, at $3bn) and a $1bn investment in the Chinese ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing, where he sits on the board.
The intriguing question now is whether Apple’s decision to display the new reporting line for the world to see (some of Cook’s direct reports aren’t on the company’s leadership page) signals an overt intent to get into the acquisitions game.
If so, it may regret not acting earlier. Netflix has doubled in value since the start of last year, to $160bn. But with $245bn in cash and investments on hand, Apple could still do some serious damage. As always, the question remains: is Apple’s need to accelerate its growth in services or find a big new hardware market great enough for it to break with past caution?