A trading floor manager works on the floor of the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US, Monday, May 4, 2026.
Michael Nagle Bloomberg | Getty Images
LONDON – European stocks were mixed on Tuesday morning, as investors digested the latest developments in the Iran war.
Immediately after opening bell, the pan-European Stoxx 600 was flat, with no broad consensus movement among sectors and major debt.
Global markets were shaken on Monday as the fragile ceasefire agreement between the US and Iran looked set to collapse as the United Arab Emirates came under attack by Iranian drones and missiles, and the US said it had sunk Iranian boats in the Strait of Hormuz.
US President Donald Trump, in an interview with Fox News later on Monday, warned Iran that it would be “blasted off the face of the earth” if it targeted American ships protecting commercial vessels passing through the port.
Trump also said in a Truth Social post that a South Korean cargo ship was fired from Iran in the water. “Maybe it’s time for South Korea to come and join the mission!” Trump wrote in the post.
Stock market indexes closed sharply lower and oil prices rose on Monday amid fears that the war could drag on longer than expected, potentially triggering a global recession. Oil prices fell overnight.
In business matters, the telecoms giant Vodafone said on Tuesday it would take full ownership of its VodafoneThree joint venture, after agreeing to buy a stake from Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchinson. The deal, worth £4.3 billion ($5.81 billion), will see Vodafone become the sole owner of the UK’s largest mobile operator.
Vodafone shares were last seen trading 1.4% higher.
Elsewhere, an Italian lender Unicredit published its first-quarter earnings Tuesday morning, reporting its 21st quarter of profitable growth and its best quarter on record. Net profit for the quarter grew 16.1% year-on-year to 3.2 billion euros ($3.74 billion), above the 2.8 billion euros expected by analysts polled by LSEG. The bank, which made a controversial takeover bid for the German lender Commerzbank, raised its guidance on Tuesday, saying it aims for a full-year profit of at least 11 billion euros by 2026.
Shares in the Milan-listed bank rose 3% in morning trading.
German defense chief RheinmetallThe company’s stock rose 1%, following the release of first-quarter earnings after the closing bell on Monday. Quarterly revenue jumped 7.7% year-on-year to reach 1.94 billion euros, falling short of market expectations of 2.3 billion euros. Rheinmetall said it expects growth in the first half of this year to follow a similar trajectory to last year, when first-quarter revenue jumped 37% year-on-year.
Earlier on Tuesday, Europe’s largest lender HSBC reported first-quarter pretax profit of $9.4 billion, slightly missing analysts’ estimates.
— CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger contributed to this market report.
