Ukraine peace, robotaxis and pharma: what’s moving stocks

00:00 Speaker A

Time now to look at stocks that are trending. First up, European defense stocks have been rallying this year, but not today. As hopes for a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine grow, companies like Rheinmetall, Thales, BAE, Babcock International are all seeing a sharp reversal. The defense sector, which has been rising on expectations that military spending in Europe would only keep going up and up, well it slid more than 0.6% this morning after a 3.4% drop on Friday. So watch this space, the Ukraine defense tailwind might be shifting.

00:31 Speaker A

Now, if you follow this show, you’ve heard about WeRide, the Chinese autonomous driving company that’s now exporting robotaxis around the world. Well, it may not be profitable, but it’s having a strong rally today, recovering some of its losses so far this year. That’s thanks to Q3 results that showed a 144% increase in revenue with robo-taxis seeing the strongest momentum.

00:52 Speaker A

Keep in mind, it’s still a highly speculative position in a competitive market, and the company is burning a lot of cash to fuel expansion.

01:00 Speaker A

Finally, you must watch pharma this morning after Eli Lilly became the first trillion-dollar company in the sector, thanks to its leadership in obesity drugs. There’s another giant, this one from Germany, that’s finally seeing signs of a turnaround. Bayer is rallying in morning trade, thanks to its cardiovascular pipeline, and specifically thanks to progress in clinical trials for a new stroke prevention drug, up 11. 1/2% there.

01:19 Speaker A

On the other hand, end of the spectrum though, Novo Nordisk’s trial results on Alzheimer’s drugs were underwhelming, and the markets are selling the stock fast. Look at it, down almost 10%. So, that’s yet another challenge for Novo Nordisk after a very difficult 2025 so far.