A trading floor manager works on the floor of the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Monday, May 4, 2026 in New York, USA.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
LONDON – European stock markets rose on Tuesday morning as investors digested the latest developments in the Iran war.
pan-european Stocks 600 The stock was up 0.55% after 11am in London, with major exchanges and most sectors gaining, except for travel and leisure stocks.
Global markets were jolted on Monday as the fragile ceasefire between the United States and Iran appeared to be nearing collapse after the United Arab Emirates came under attack by Iranian drones and missiles and the United States said it had sunk an Iranian ship in the Strait of Hormuz.
US President Donald Trump warned in a Fox News interview late Monday that Iran would be “blown off the face of the earth” if it targeted US ships protecting commercial ships passing through the strait.
President Trump also said in a post on Truth Social that a South Korean cargo ship had come under fire from Iran in the waterway. “Maybe it’s time for South Korea to join this mission!” Trump wrote in the post.
Stock market indexes closed sharply lower and oil prices rose on Monday amid concerns that the war could last much longer than expected and trigger a global recession. Oil prices fell overnight.
In corporate news, major telecommunications companies vodafone announced on Tuesday that it will take full ownership of the Vodafone Three joint venture after agreeing to buy the stake of Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchinson. The deal, worth a total of 4.3 billion pounds ($5.81 billion), will make Vodafone the sole owner of Britain’s largest mobile operator.
Vodafone’s share price was last trading 0.3% lower.
Elsewhere, Italian financiers UniCredit announced its first quarter results on Tuesday morning, reporting its 21st quarter of profit growth and its best quarter ever. Net profit rose 16.1% year-on-year to 3.2 billion euros ($3.74 billion), well above the 2.8 billion euros expected by analysts polled by LSEG. Bank controversially set to buy German lender Commerzbankraised its outlook on Tuesday, saying it aims for full-year net profit of at least 11 billion euros in 2026.
The bank’s Milan-listed shares rose 5% in morning trading.
german defense minister line metalThe company’s stock rose 3.7% following the release of its first-quarter results after Monday’s close. Quarterly sales reached 1.94 billion euros, an increase of 7.7% year-on-year, 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, with cumulative first-half revenue up 37% year-on-year.
Early Tuesday morning, Europe’s largest financial institution HSBC The company reported first-quarter pretax profit of $9.4 billion, slightly below analysts’ expectations.
— CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger contributed to this market report.
