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The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights Compagnie de Saint-Gobain, Natwest and Lonza

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – June 10, 2025 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Compagnie de Saint-Gobain - Unsponsored ADR (CODYY - Free Report) , Natwest Group (NWG - Free Report) and Lonza Group (LZAGY - Free Report) .

Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:

Tariff Tactics: Global Week Ahead

What is in play in the Global Week Ahead?

Uncertainty from Washington D.C.'s tariff tactics remains rife.

But investors realize: whatever U.S. President Donald Trump threatens doesn't tend to last long before he delays or backs down, meaning recent volatility has ebbed.

This tendency to U-turn, dubbed the TACO trade — "Trump Always Chickens Out" — has caught on.

But it's also given investors something to bank on.

So, they can focus on upcoming reads on Consumer Price Inflation (CPI) and trade.

Next are Reuters’ five world market themes, re-ordered for equity traders—

(1) The TACO trade is a meaningful geopolitical concept

The high-voltage volatility that shook markets in April and through May has subsided, with investors becoming accustomed to Trump's on-again-off-again approach to anything from tariffs to personal relationships — the meltdown with erstwhile DOGE chief and Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk being the latest.

Wall Street's fear-gauge, the VIX index, has slipped back below the 20-line that many view as a watermark.

Since Trump became the 47th president on January 20th, the index has topped 20 on 47 occasions. In the five months prior to that, it breached that level 18 times.

In the last month, there have been just seven days when the VIX has popped above 20, compared with every day from April 2 "Liberation Day" to early May.

If anything, the TACO trade is taking some spice out of the market.

(2) Wednesday at 8:30 am EST, the May U.S. consumer inflation (CPI) data lands.

Investors are hoping any rise in Wednesday's May consumer inflation report won't be as severe as feared, given Trump's erratic trade tactics.

Recent data shows inflation falling close to the Federal Reserve's +2.0% target. Price pressures in manufacturing and services sectors are picking up, however.

A good gauge of markets' long-term inflation view indicates only moderate concern.

The inflation breakeven rate on five-year Treasury Inflation Protected Securities suggests investors believe the rate will average less than 0.3 percentage points above the target for the next five years.

The Fed's most recent Beige Book showed economic activity is weakening, while costs and prices are rising across the different regions — a combination policymakers do not want to see.

Traders expect the Fed to make no rate change at its June 18th meeting.

(3) On Monday, macro data from Mainland China focuses markets on trade issues.

Washington and Beijing's trade spat has brought a familiar issue back to the surface.

China has a stranglehold on global supply of so-called rare earths, critical ingredients in almost every high-tech device out there, from cars to cruise missiles.

When China cuts off supply, everything withers.

The auto industry is feeling it. Suzuki suspended production of the Swift subcompact, weeks after Ford (F) did the same for its Explorer SUV.

The White House has blasted Beijing for reneging on tariff rollbacks agreed in Geneva last month, but China is doing the same, lambasting the U.S. over revoked student visas and cutting-edge chip curbs.

Chinese trade data on Monday will illuminate what's at stake, while inflation figures that day will show if Beijing's efforts to stoke domestic demand are working.

(4) On Friday, macro data from the European Union will focus on trade there.

April trade data for the European Union on Friday, June 13th could offer a reasonably clean read on where things stood as Trump's on-off tariffs began to roll out.

The E.U. is firmly in the U.S. president's crosshairs.

Trump has said more than once the sole purpose of the E.U. is to "take advantage" of America, on the grounds that his country boasts a $200 billion trade deficit with the bloc in goods alone, making the E.U. its second-biggest goods trade partner behind China.

E.U. sales of cars, steel, pharmaceuticals and luxury goods and apparel among other things are big business.

Trump on May 23rd said he would impose a 50% tariff on all E.U. imports, only to back down two days later by delaying the duties by a month after a "very nice call" with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

(5) On Wednesday, the U.K. government presents a spending review. Bond vigilantes know this.

Britain, often a prime target for bond vigilantes that attack indebted governments for financial mismanagement, has been pushed into these traders' peripheral vision by U.S. budget concerns.

The Labour government's first spending review on Wednesday could bring the UK back into the spotlight.

Even if finance minister Rachel Reeves manages to slash departmental spending, this will merely highlight how few cost-cutting options she has left, Bank of America says.

U.K. public debt has swelled, leaving Reeves minimal headroom to avoid breaking self-imposed fiscal rules and less able to resist tax hikes.

Still, businesses and borrowers still scarred by the gilt market riot after then Prime Minister Liz Truss' 2022 mini-budget may prefer higher taxes if that lowers the odds of bond vigilantes showing up.

Zacks #1 Rank (STRONG BUY) Stocks—

I picked three large cap European stocks from our #1 list this week.

(1) Compagnie de Saint-Gobain - Unsponsored ADR: This is a $23 a share stock, with a market capitalization of $57.5B. The company operates in the Zacks Building Products-Miscellaneous industry. I see a Zacks Value score of B, a Zacks Growth score of B, and a Zacks Momentum score of F.

Compagnie de Saint-Gobain S.A. designs, manufactures and distributes materials and solutions for the construction and industrial markets.

The company offers glazing solutions for buildings and vehicles under the Saint-Gobain, GlassSolutions, Vetrotech and SageGlass brands; plaster-based products for construction and renovation markets.

Compagnie de Saint-Gobain S.A. is based in Courbevoie, France.

(2) Natwest Group: This is a $14 a share stock, with a market capitalization of $57.5B. The company operates in the Zacks Foreign Bank industry. I see a Zacks Value score of F, a Zacks Growth score of D and a Zacks Momentum score of B.

Natwest Group plc operates as a banking and financial services company.

It provides personal and business banking, consumer loans, asset and invoice finances, commercial and residential mortgages, credit cards and financial planning services, as well as life, personal and income protection insurance.

Natwest Group plc, formerly known as The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc, is based in Edinburgh, the United Kingdom.

(3) Lonza Group: This is a $68 a share stock, with a market capitalization of $49.2B. The company operates in the Zacks Medical Products industry. I see a Zacks Value score of D, a Zacks Growth score of C, and a Zacks Momentum score of B.

Lonza Group AG operates as a supplier to the pharmaceutical, healthcare and life-science industries.

The company divides its activities into four divisions: Life Science Ingredients; Microbial Control; Custom Manufacturing, and Bioscience.

·        The company's Life Science Ingredients segment produces nutrition ingredients for applications in nutrition (food, feed and pharmaceutical application) and chemical intermediates for the agricultural industry.

·        The Microbial Control division focuses on five areas: hygiene, wood protection, water treatment, oil/gas applications, and industrial preservation and comprises products ranging from disinfectants to household cleaning products.

·        TheCustom Manufacturing division comprises products used in pharmaceuticals sector.

·        The Bioscience division comprises bioscience products, including cell culture and molecular biology tools for research, tests for microbial detection, and media used in the production of therapeutics. Lonza Group AG is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland.

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Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.


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Lonza Group Ag (LZAGY) - free report >>

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