European stocks edge higher; chemicals giant Bayer rises 6% on profit beat

The U.K. unemployment rate hit 4.5% in the January to March period, the highest rate since August 2021.

Vacancies dropped by 42,000 across February to April, falling for the 34th consecutive quarter.

"There are clear signs of loosening in the labor market – even before the double whammy of the hike in minimum wage and employer [National Insurance Contributions] kick in," Deutsche Bank's chief U.K. economist Sanjay Raja said by email.

— Jenni Reid

Shares of German chemicals giant Bayer rose by 9% after beating the top and bottom line on its first-quarter results.

The company, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies and biomedical companies, reported 13.74 billion euros ($15.27 billion) in first-quarter sales, more than the 13.52 billion euros expected by analysts.

Bayer also reported adjusted profits of 4.09 billion euros, down by 7.4% year on year but higher than the 3.75 billion euros expected.

The company said it may be able to offset any impact from tariffs through mitigation measures, which analysts view as "positive."

"All in all, it was encouraging to see Bayer beat expectations and confirm its constant currency guidance, despite the uncertain tariff environment," said Falko Friedrichs, equity analyst at Deutsche Bank. "However, we caution that the underlying results continued to be weak, with significant earnings declines and ongoing high legal risks."

— Ganesh Rao

Softbank's Vision Fund business on Tuesday posted a loss in the fiscal year ended March as it booked slowing gains at its massive tech investment arm.

SoftBank said it notched a gain on investment at its Vision Funds of 434.9 billion yen in the fiscal year, a 40% fall from the 724.3 billion yen booked in the previous year.

The Vision Fund segment overall logged a pretax loss of 115.02 billion yen ($777.7 mllion) versus a profit of 128.2 billion yen in the previous fiscal year.

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German reinsurers reported a hit of nearly $2 billion on their first-quarter earnings following the Los Angeles wildfires.

Munich Re, the world's largest reinsurance company, said it anticipated all claims attributable to the wildfires will total around 1.1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) in the first quarter of 2025 due to the wildfires in California earlier this year.

Reinsurance firms offer policies to primary insurance providers, who typically deal directly with customers on the ground. Reinsurance policies usually only kick in after about 400 million euros worth of losses are absorbed by the primary insurance provider.

"The devastating wildfires in Los Angeles resulted in the [property-casualty segment's] largest single claims event, totalling approximately €0.8bn (nominal)," the company said in its quarterly statement. Despite the hit, the group reported a net profit of 1.1 billion euros, down 48% from the previous year.

Hannover Re, the world's third largest reinsurer, said its largest net individual loss was 631.4 million euros from the California wildfires.

"Payments for large losses reached EUR 764.7 million in the first quarter – driven above all by the California wildfires – and thus came in significantly higher than the envisaged large loss budget of EUR 435 million," Hannover said in its quarterly statement. Net profit for the firm fell by 14% to 480 million euros.

— Ganesh Rao

Correction: The total cost of the wildfires to the German insurers was $1.9 billion. A previous version of this post misstated the figure.

European markets are expected to open in mixed territory Tuesday.

The U.K.'s FTSE 100 index is expected to open 4 points lower at 8,591, Germany's DAX up 23 points at 23,569, France's CAC 3 points lower at 7,834 and Italy's FTSE MIB 30 points lower at 39,222, according to data from IG.

Earnings come from Softbank, Tata Motors, Metro Bank and Bayer. Data releases include U.K. retail sales and unemployment figures. Germany's ZEW survey of economic sentiment is also due to be released.

— Holly Ellyatt