Carrefour Plunges, Randstad Rises, EssilorLuxottica Gains

0:02 Bloomberg Audio Studios.

0:04 Podcasts. Radio. News.

0:08 The Stock Movers Report. Your roundup of companies making moves in the stock market. Harnessing the power of Bloomberg data.

0:16 Let's take a look at some of the stocks on the move today in Europe.

0:18 I'm Jason Wilcock with Karen Hepka.

0:20 And we're joined by Bloomberg reporter Josh Goldmarner. Josh, look, let's start with Carrefour. We've been talking about France all week. How is it doing given the news?

0:29 Yeah.

0:30 So, the grocer has become one of the first to really show the impact of the recent social unrest in France. And unsurprisingly, the news is not good. It's cut its outlook. CEO Alexandra Bombard has said the company is facing an unprecedented situation. Protests are undermining consumer confidence. They're deterring shoppers.

0:52 And although we've seen protests ease after the curfews were imposed, protesters are calling for another day of unrest this weekend. So, there's still questions over you know, how long this disruption could last. About 50 of Carrefour's stores were hit on the first day of writing. You know, there's lower footfall again since then, reduced opening hours because of the curfews.

1:13 And also, it's had to pay more for security and logistics. So, really bad news across the board. Shares down as much as 11%. That's the biggest drop since March 2020 when markets were rocked by the COVID-19 pandemic.

1:27 Yeah, it's a really difficult moment, isn't it, for those big consumer-facing businesses, as you say, in France. Let's also think about another business, Randstad, the employment services provider. Shares rising. Now, why is that?

1:42 Up as much as 16%. This is because it's seeing some pockets of improvement in hiring and that's reinforcing some of the signs we've seen from other players in the region. And basically, it's lifting confidence that this prolonged downturn is finally beginning to ease. We've seen organic revenue rise 3.9% in the latest quarter. That was ahead of expectations and more than double the pace of the last quarter. So, quite a sequential improvement. The improvement seems to be becoming more visible in Northern Europe. You know, Germany is growing quite well. The Netherlands has returned to growth, although it is still worth noting that North America remains the biggest driver of growth overall. Overall, the news is helping the

2:27 downtrodden sector find some relief. We've got a deco up by over 6% and London-listed haze up by about 4% this morning. And then, sticking with the earnings theme, Estel Exotica, where things are looking up, apparently. Yes, the eyewear firm behind brands like Ray-Ban and Oakley surged as much as 12% after revenue rose at a faster pace than expected. Sales were up by about 7.2% of constant currency ahead of the 6.3% expected by analysts. Importantly, the beat was driven by its traditional lenses and frames that are sold in retail chains. Revenue from the wearables component, which gets a lot of attention because it includes the MetaSmart glasses, for example, grew by about 21%. The stock is having its best

3:12 day in about a year, but this is more a relief bounce than anything else. Shares are still down by about 38% this year, mainly because the hype around the potential of AI glasses has faded somewhat.

3:26 Still, Jeffrey says the stock.

3:27 Looks compelling at the moment and, you know, shares are still not far off those all time lows.

3:34 The Stock Movers Report from Bloomberg Radio. Check back with us throughout the day for the latest roundup of companies making news on Wall Street and for the latest market moving headlines. Listen to Bloomberg Radio live. Catch us on YouTube, Bloomberg.com and on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app.