European stocks poised to climb as earnings, U.S. tariffs remain in focus

Sales of Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster Wegovy weight loss drug surged in the second quarter, the company said in its latest report, days after cutting its full-year guidance and announcing a new CEO.

Overall revenues rose 13% year-on-year at constant exchange rates to 76.86 billion Danish kroner ($11.92 billion) in the three months to the end of June, just ahead of the 76.6 billion Danish kroner forecast.

Sales of its blockbuster Wegovy obesity drug rose 67% over the period to 19.53 billion Danish kroner, slightly below the 20 billion Danish kroner analysts had forecast.

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— Karen Gilchrist

Fresenius has raised its revenue outlook for the full year, with the German healthcare group now expecting up to 7% organic growth.

CEO Michael Sen hailed a “resilient and consistent performance” in the first half, adding that the group will “focus on organic growth through disciplined capital allocation.”

— Michael Considine

Commerzbank‘s second-quarter net profit fell 14% year on year, the German lender said on Wednesday morning, citing restructuring costs.

Net profit for the quarter came in at 462 million euros ($535 million).

Meanwhile, the bank’s quarterly operating result jumped 34% from the previous year to 1.17 billion euros, helping it notch a record 2.4 billion operating result for the first half of the year.

Commerzbank raised its full-year outlook, saying it now expects a net result of around 2.5 billion euros, up from an earlier forecast of 2.4 billion euros.

— Chloe Taylor

U.K. Finance Minister Rachel Reeves could be facing a £51 billion ($67.9 billion) hole in the autumn budget.

That’s according to Britain’s National Institute of Economic and Social Research, which warns she faces an “impossible trilemma.”

The thinktank argues that the U.K. chancellor cannot comply with her fiscal rules, honour spending pledges and avoid tax increases for working people, arguing she needs to find an additional £41 billion for the government to meet its fiscal targets by 2029-30.

— Andreea Gheorghe

Good morning from London, and welcome to CNBC’s live blog covering all the action and business news in European financial markets on Wednesday.

Futures data from IG suggests a broadly positive open for European indexes, with London’s FTSE 100 seen opening 0.35% higher, France’s CAC 40 and Germany’s DAX up 0.25%, and Italy’s FTSE MIB 0.34% higher.

Global markets will be keeping an eye on the tariff landscape the rest of this week after U.S. President Donald Trump signaled he will announce new tariffs on semiconductors and chips as soon as next week.

“We’re going to be announcing [tariffs] on semiconductors and chips, which is a separate category, because we want them made in the United States,” Trump told CNBC on Tuesday, adding that he’ll announce the new plan “within the next week or so.”

Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed overnight on the comments, while S&P 500 futures were near flat Tuesday night as investors analyzed the latest batch of corporate earnings.

— Holly Ellyatt