FTSE 100 LIVE: European stocks mixed as Kamala Harris clinches enough support for nomination

Spotify is scheduled to report its fiscal second-quarter earnings on Tuesday before the US market opens. Wall Street anticipates that the music streaming company will once again achieve a profit on an adjusted basis, reflecting the impact of its recent "efficiency" strategy.

"Spotify is at an inflection point with recent price changes highlighting its commitment to expanding gross margin and profit," noted Geetha Ranganathan, senior media analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.

The company is expected to report revenue of €3.81bn, up from €3.18bn in Q2 2023. Adjusted earnings per share are projected to be €1.04, an improvement from the adjusted loss of €1.55 reported in the same period last year. Total monthly active users are forecasted to reach 631 million, compared to 551 million in Q2 2023, while premium subscribers are expected to increase to 245 million from 220 million.

The stock has surged, with shares gaining more than 50% since the start of the year and up about 70% on a yearly basis, Yahoo Finance writes.

"We continue to see a long runway for growth in music streaming," Morgan Stanley analyst Ben Swinburne said in a note published earlier this month.

"This view is supported by paid subscription streaming penetration of global smartphones of just ~15% at year-end 2023 and service offerings that remain in our view underpriced when compared to historical consumer spending on music."

The latest from Rightmove:

The average rental price in London is now £2,661 per month – 4% higher than this time a year ago, according to quarterly data from housing platform Rightmove.

Meanwhile, rents are rising at a faster clip in the rest of the UK, with the average price of a property outside of London up 7% compared with last year to £1,314 per month.

In the first quarter, the same measure showed rental prices in the capital reaching a record of £2,633 per calendar month, with the average price outside of London hitting £1,291.

The figures represent a new, depressing, quarterly record. While the overall balance between supply and while demand has continued to improve during the second quarter of this year, the latest snapshot of the rental market highlights how busy it remains compared to more normal levels seen pre-pandemic. Both letting agents and tenants are unlikely to feel any improvements yet.

The number of enquiries each rental property is receiving from would-be tenants is now 17 which, while down from 26 this time last year, is more than double the eight at this time in 2019.

READ MORE HERE

Google owner Alphabet is expected to report a fourth straight quarter of double-digit revenue growth on an uptick in the advertising market. It will announce its results to the markets after the US closing bell on Tuesday.

The company’s stock is near all-time highs and continues to benefit from strong Search and YouTube revenue growth. Google's progress in GenAI, coupled with better-than-expected ad revenue, has boosted investor sentiment.

“We view current valuation as undemanding given the strength of the underlying digital ad market and the considerable optionality for Google across advertising and cloud, as AI monetization continues,” wrote Wedbush analyst Scott Devit.

At its recent price of $182, Alphabet goes for 21-times the consensus forecast for 2025 earnings.

Google on Monday scrapped plans to remove user-tracking cookies from its Chrome browser, under pressure from advertisers who use cookies' data to target advertisements.

Google’s talks to acquire the cybersecurity startup Wiz for a planned $23bn have fallen apart, according to the Wall Street Journal.

READ MORE HERE

Here's Deutsche Bank analysts' take on what the odds are saying for a Harris presidency: