Shares across Europe tepid and US stocks in the red after strong week

For more market moving news, go to our US site.

Our reporter Pedro Goncalves has the latest:

Novo Nordisk (NVO) has agreed to buy Cardior Pharmaceuticals, a German biotech company developing heart disease treatments, for €1bn (£856bn) as it expands into cardiovascular treatments.

The Danish pharmaceutical drugmaker is building a portfolio of therapies in areas like cardiovascular disease and emerging-therapy areas while strengthening its progress in the rare-disease pipeline.

“The acquisition is an important step forward in Novo Nordisk’s strategy to establish a presence in cardiovascular disease,” the company said in a statement.

The maker of blockbuster diabetes and weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy said it will make an upfront payment for Cardior Pharmaceuticals, which is developing therapies that target microRNA.

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Boeing stock is in the green as markets open on Monday in the US, as traders embrace a management shakeup at the embattled planemaker.

CEO Dan Calhoun will step down. Stan Deal, president and CEO of Boeing’s commercial airplanes unit, will retire immediately. Meanwhile, Stephanie Pope, the company’s chief operating officer, will lead the division.

The UK government said on Monday it has now sold enough of its share of NatWest that it no longer has a controlling stake.

The facts:

• Due to sales as part of the ongoing trading plan, the government has reduced its shareholding in NatWest Group to below 30%.

• This is down from a peak government shareholding of around 84%.

• Since the trading plan commenced in August 2021, approximately £5.8 billion in proceeds have been raised.

The ongoing trading plan, which allows a "measured and orderly" sale of shares at market price on a daily basis, is one of several disposal methods available to the government, it said.

HM Treasury and UK Government Investments continue to keep all possible disposal methods under active consideration for future sales, including accelerated bookbuilds and directed buybacks. Any share sale is subject to supportive market conditions and achieving value for money for the taxpayer, the government added.

Here's what US stocks are doing at the open:

Another trending ticker for you here:

Direct Line shares tumbled as it insisted it was confident in its standalone prospects after Belgium’s Ageas (AGS.BR) said it would not be making an offer for the insurer following two failed attempts at engaging with the board.

"As communicated at Direct Line Group's 2023 preliminary results on 21 March 2024, the board believes under Adam Winslow's leadership the company is well-positioned to drive material improvement in performance that is expected to unlock significant value for Direct Line Group shareholders," the London-listed insurer said.

In February, Ageas confirmed it was exploring the possibility of making a £3.1bn offer for Direct Line Insurance Group.

“We had hoped to reach agreement on a jointly recommended firm offer together with the Direct Line board,” Ageas chief executive Hans De Cuyper said.

“However, I am convinced that, given the circumstances, we took the right decision not to make an offer, staying true to who we are and what we stand for in terms of maintaining a friendly approach and respecting our financial discipline.”

Bitcoin's back in the news. My colleague Pedro Goncalves writes:

The price of Bitcoin gained as much as 4% on Monday, almost touching $67,000 (£53,153), amid continued demand for spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

BlackRock (BLK) and Fidelity Investment’s spot Bitcoin ETFs — IBIT and FBTC — have become the most popular funds the two asset managers currently offer in less than 50 days of trading, based on data shared by Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas.

Investors are also keen for an event in April that is known as Bitcoin's "halving", when the issuance of new tokens will be cut in half, further supporting prices at a time when demand has been rising.

Here's the announcement.

And here's the background from the EU on the Digital Markets Act:

Barret Kupelian PwC's chief economist comments:

Apple, Google parent Alphabet and Meta are set to be at the receiving end of a probe by the EU, in the debut use of the Digital Markets Act — a law aimed at handling Big Tech's control on the market.

The probe will look at whether the big tech trio let developers prompt users to platforms outside of their app stores. It will also probe Meta's handling of personal data for advertising purposes.

All three companies were about 0.5% lower in premarket trade.

Some highlights from the ONS housing affordability survey, published today:

• In 2023, full-time employees in England could expect to spend around 8.3 times their annual earnings buying a home. The equivalent figure in Wales is 6.1 times their annual earnings.

• At the national level, these ratios are similar to 2022, and represent a return to the pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic trend after a large increase between 2020 and 2021.

• In the 318 local authorities (LAs) in England and Wales, housing affordability improved in 237 (75%) since 2022, worsened in 77 (24%), and stayed the same in the remaining 1%.

• In 2023, 7% of LAs (23) had homes bought for less than five times workers' earnings and therefore deemed affordable; this is more than in 2022 and similar to numbers before the pandemic.

• The ten largest improvements in affordability in the past five years were in local authorities in London or bordering London; however, they remain some of the least affordable areas.

• New dwellings in each region and country cost more than five times average earnings in 2023; only existing dwellings in the North East cost less than that.

Here are US stock futures. Looks like a slightly lower open for US indices.

From our US team:

US stocks closed mixed on Friday with the the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) logging a fresh record high as the prospect of a reversal from interest rate hikes buoyed investors' spirits.

The Nasdaq, which opened the day in the red, flipped into positive territory by mid-afternoon to close up about 0.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI), which is eyeing the key 40,000 mark, fell about 0.7% while the benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) slipped 0.1%.

The gauges secured solid weekly gains, having racked up all-time closing highs after the Federal Reserve soothed worries it might scale back its forecast for rate cuts this year. Optimism that borrowing costs have peaked is also riding high on signs other big central banks are ready to pivot.

Asian stocks finished the day mostly lower, snapping a winning streak for Japan's Nikkei (^N225), which had rallied since the 15 March. The index fell 1.2% on Monday. Earlier last week Japan's central bank raised interest rates above zero for the first time in 16 years, as it tries to kickstart the economy.

Stocks in China also fell, with the Hang Seng (^HSI) pulling back 0.2% and the SSE composite (000001.SS) falling 0.7%.

Hello from London! After a busy week of central bank musings last week we've got a short week in the UK, going into the Easter holiday. Still, we have central bank speeches today from Christine Lagarde and the Bank of England's Catherine Mann and US house price index readings on Tuesday.