DE30: Equities trade mixed ahead of US jobs data

• European shares trade mixed on Wednesday

• DE30 makes another test of 10,750 pts handle

• BMW (BMW.DE) saw 20.7% YoY drop in deliveries in Q1 2020

Stocks in Europe are trading mixed and struggle to find a direction. DAX is trading slightly lower, along with French and Spanish equities. However, overall trading ranges are quite narrow. Poor European data is weighing on sentiment. ADP report in the early afternoon could be a big market mover for equities (1:15 pm BST)

Single-digit PMIs in the eurozone!

While today's calendar for the European session included mostly revised services PMIs, some countries were releasing data for April for the first time. Spanish services PMI dropped into a single-digit territory! The gauge slumped from 23 pts in March to just 7.1 pts in April (exp. 10 pts). It is the first time a major European economy saw one of its PMIs drop below 10. Italy fared a bit better as the data showed a drop from 17.4 to 10.8 pts (exp. 9). French and German services PMIs saw small revisions. Elsewhere, UK construction PMI data for April showed a drop from 22 to just 8.2 pts!

Source: xStation5

DE30 found support at 200-hour moving average overnight (purple line). The index rallied during the Asian trading hours, what has been a common playbook in the past few days. German index managed to test the 10,750 pts handle ahead of the European cash session launch but failed to break above. This level remains key resistance to watch, especially as the index still trades next to it. Break above could be seen as a bullish signal. ADP employment report is a big release for today (1:15 pm BST) and is expected to show a massive decline of 20 million jobs! It will be a prelude to Friday's NFP release and may have an impact on sentiment so stay on guard. Should we see a stronger downward move later today, the 200-hour moving average will be on the radar (10,600 pts area).

DAX members at 9:55 am BST. Source: Bloomberg

BMW (BMW.DE) reported a 133% YoY jump in operating income in Q1 2020. However, such a big jump was a result of a lack of one-off items that depressed year ago results. Deliveries dropped 20.6% to 477,111 units. EBIT margin stood at 1.3%. However, the company is expecting full-year EBIT margin in the automotive segment to fall between 0 and 3%, down from 2-4% range in the pre-virus forecast. 

Fresenius SE (FRE.DE) reported Q1 earnings today. Adjusted net profit for the quarter was €465 million against €457 million in Q1 2019. Sales increased 8% YoY to €9.1 billion (exp. €8.95 billion). The company said it will issue full-year guidance along with results for Q2 2020.

Fresenius Medical Care (FME.DE), subsidiary of Fresenius, also reported Q1 results today. The company generated €4.49 billion in revenue, 9% higher than a year ago. Operating profit came in at €555 million and was 3% YoY higher. Adjusted net income dropped from €286 to €283. EPS increased from €0.88 to €0.95. Fresenius Medical Care confirmed 2020 forecasts, saying that it still expected revenue and net income to grow by mid to high single-digit this year.

Volkswagen (VOW3.DE) said that it has experienced positive year-over-year growth in China's sales in April.

Fresenius Medical Care (FME.DE) gains following release of Q1 2020 earnings report. The stock is testing resistance zone ranging below the 50% retracement of the drop started in October 2018. The next important resistance - 200-week moving average (purple line) - can be found slightly above. Note that this moving average halted upward move in mid-February 2020. Source: xStation5