Europe bulletin: Amazon tax clash, UK market caution, Zelenskyy’s election terms
Europe’s news flow today is a mix of corporate shake-ups, political tension, and cautious market mood.
Amazon’s hefty tax settlement in Italy hasn’t slowed ongoing probes, UK stocks treaded lightly ahead of the Fed’s rate decision, and Ukraine signaled readiness for wartime elections, but only with Western security guarantees.
In aviation, Boeing looks set to break Airbus’s six-year winning streak on jet orders, even as Europe’s biggest planemaker maintains strength in deliveries and smaller aircraft.
Amazon pays €510M, probes persist
Amazon has agreed to shell out about €510 million (roughly $582 million) to Italy’s tax agency to settle a dispute over alleged tax evasion tied to its 2019–2021 operations.
Even with that deal in place, prosecutors in Milan aren’t backing off, they’re still digging into what they suspect could be around €1.2 billion in unpaid taxes, and they expect to wrap up that investigation early next year.
The whole situation has exposed some friction between different parts of the Italian government.
While the tax agency is fine with Amazon’s settlement, prosecutors are pushing ahead with their own probes into Amazon’s taxes from 2021–2024, along with separate investigations into Chinese import fraud.
UK markets steady ahead of Fed
UK stocks were a bit all over the place on Wednesday, with investors keeping things cautious while waiting for the US Federal Reserve’s big interest rate call later in the day.
The FTSE 100 inched up by about 0.1% to around 9,662 points, but the FTSE 250 dipped by the same amount.
Pretty much the same mood across Europe as everyone’s bracing for what looks like a likely 25-basis-point rate cut from the Fed.
A few stocks stood out, though. HSBC and Standard Chartered both climbed around 2% after getting upgrades from Bank of America.
Media names had a nice boost too, with Pearson up 1% and RELX jumping nearly 4%, thanks to J.P. Morgan naming them top picks in what it sees as an undervalued sector.
Zelenskyy open to elections with security
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he’s ready to hold elections within 60–90 days, but only if the US and European allies can guarantee enough security to make voting safe during the ongoing war with Russia.
His comments were basically a response to criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump, who suggested Ukraine is using the conflict as an excuse to delay elections.
Zelenskyy’s term actually expired last year, but martial law currently prevents the country from holding nationwide votes.
Zelenskyy pushed back hard on the idea that he’s trying to cling to power, calling those accusations “totally inadequate.”
He urged Ukrainian lawmakers to start working on election laws that would apply during wartime, stressing that protecting voters from Russian attacks has to come first.
Boeing set to clinch order lead
Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury admitted that Boeing is probably going to come out on top in this year’s jet order race, something that hasn’t happened in six years.
Through November, Boeing logged 908 net orders, while Airbus is sitting at around 700.
A big part of Boeing’s momentum comes from strong demand for its 787 long-haul jets, helped along by the resolution of some US tariff disputes tied to aircraft deals.
Even so, Airbus still leads in deliveries and overall backlog, and it continues to dominate the market for smaller jets like the A321.
So while Boeing may take the order crown this year, Airbus still has plenty of strength elsewhere.
Faury also brushed off the idea that a huge new wave of orders from China is about to land, though he did point out that Beijing has approved 120 previously agreed-upon jets.
For now, he says China is keeping things balanced between both manufacturers as discussions continue.
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