Novo Nordisk on Wednesday reported a third-quarter beat on sales of its blockbuster weight-loss drug Wegovy and narrowed its 2024 full-year growth guidance.

Company shares jumped early on Wednesday and were last up 7.7% at 9:02 a.m. London time.

The Danish pharmaceutical giant said that its net profit in the third quarter hit 27.3 billion Danish kroner ($3.92 billion), above an LSEG aggregate estimate of 26.95 billion Danish kroner.

Novo Nordisk added that sales of Wegovy were 79% higher year-on-year in the third quarter, coming in at 17.3 billion Danish kroner. This was above the 15.9 billion Danish kroner analyst had been expecting according to a company-compiled consensus, Reuters reported.

The company narrowed its sales growth outlook for the full year 2024 to 23% to 27% from 22% to 28% at constant exchange rates and tightened its operating profit growth guidance to come in at 21% to 27%, versus the previously expected 20% to 28%, both at constant exchange rates.

The guidance reflected the company’s expectations for sales growth in North America and internationally, which is largely driven by volume growth of treatments based on Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), Novo Nordisk said.

“Following higher-than-expected volume growth in recent years, including GLP-1-based products such as Ozempic and Wegovy, combined with the expectation of continued volume growth and capacity limitations at some manufacturing sites, the outlook also reflects expected continued periodic supply constraints and related drug shortage notifications across a number of products and geographies,” it added.

Novo Nordisk added that it was investing in capacity both internally and externally to increase supply in the short- and long-term.

Regionally, Novo Nordisk’s sales increased 22% in North America in the third quarter of 2024 compared to a year earlier. Sales to the key U.S. market were up 21% over the period, with GLP-1 volume growth up 15% in the region.

“Novo Nordisk is the market leader with 53.9% measured by total monthly prescriptions and 50.0% measured by new-to-brand prescriptions,” the company said.

The healthcare titan has weathered increasingly strong competition, but also received promising news in the weight-loss space in recent months.

Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said all doses of Wegovy were now available in the U.S. after previously noting that the lowest dose of Wegovy was in short supply. The news was taken as a signal that Novo Nordisk’s efforts to ramp up supplies of Wegovy and diabetes drug Ozempic are paying off.

Also in October, a study showed that Ozempic could reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, suggesting its potential to delay or prevent the memory-robbing condition.

— CNBC’s Annika Kim Constantino contributed to this story

British oil major BP on Tuesday reported its weakest quarterly earnings in nearly four years, weighed down by a slump in crude prices and lower refining margins.

The energy firm posted underlying replacement cost profit, used as a proxy for net profit, of $2.3 billion for the July-September period. That beat analyst expectations of $2.1 billion, according to an LSEG-compiled consensus.

BP reported net profit of $2.8 billion for the second quarter of the year and $3.3 billion for the third quarter of 2023.

The firm’s third-quarter results were the weakest since the fourth quarter of 2020, when industry profits cratered during the coronavirus pandemic.

“We have made significant progress since we laid out our six priorities earlier this year to make bp simpler, more focused and higher value,” Murray Auchincloss, CEO of BP, said in a statement.

“In oil and gas, we see the potential to grow through the decade with a focus on value over volume. We also have a deep belief in the opportunity afforded by the energy transition – we have established a number of leading positions and will continue high-grading our investments to ensure they compete with the rest of our business.”

Oil prices fell by more than 17% in the third quarter amid concerns about the outlook for global oil demand.

BP maintained its dividend at 8 cents per share after raising it in the second quarter and said it would keep the rate of its share buyback program unchanged at $1.75 billion over the next three months.

The company said it is committed to announcing a further $1.75 billion share buyback in the fourth quarter but warned that, as part of an update to its medium term plans in February next year, it intends “to review elements of our financial guidance, including our expectations for 2025 share buybacks.”

Net debt rose to $24.3 billion in the July-September period, up from $22.6 billion at the end of the second quarter. BP said the increase was primarily driven by lower operating cash flow, higher capital expenditures and lower divestment.

Shares of London-listed BP fell around 1.2% on Tuesday morning. The stock price is down over 14% year-to-date, underperforming its European rivals as investors continue to question the firm’s investment case.

The Raytheon subsidiary of defense contractor RTX agreed Wednesday to pay more than $950 million to settle U.S. Department of Justice investigations into an alleged government contract fraud scheme, violations of foreign bribery laws and the Arms Export Control Act.

Raytheon also agreed to pay more than $124 million to settle charges filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in connection with paying bribes of more than $32 million to a relative of the emir of Qatar and to military and government officials in that country in exchange for obtaining defense contracts there. More than $22 million of that settlement will be offset by Raytheon’s settlement with the DOJ.

The company as part of the DOJ settlement also agreed to enter into deferred prosecution agreements involving that conduct in federal district courts in Brooklyn, New York, and Massachusetts.

The company was charged in the Brooklyn case with conspiracy to violate anti-bribery laws in a scheme to bribe a high-level government official in Qatar and with failing to disclose the bribes in export licensing applications with the State Department as legally required.

In the Massachusetts case, Raytheon admitted to engaging in two separate schemes to defraud the Defense Department in connection with the Patriot missile systems and a radar system, along with other defense products and services.

The company also will retain an independent monitor for three years and enhance its internal compliance program as part of the settlement, which the DOJ announced.

“Raytheon engaged in criminal schemes to defraud the U.S. government in connection with contracts for critical military systems and to win business through bribery in Qatar,” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Kevin Driscoll of the DOJ’s Criminal Division, in a statement.

“Such corrupt and fraudulent conduct, especially by a publicly traded U.S. defense contractor, erodes public trust and harms the DOD, businesses that play by the rules, and American taxpayers,” Driscoll said.

RTX in a statement said the settlements with the DOJ and the SEC relate to probes previously disclosed by the company, and that “these legacy legal matters relate to conduct that occurred at Raytheon Company largely prior to 2020,”

“RTX is taking responsibility for the misconduct that occurred,” the company said. “We have worked diligently during the investigations to remediate that misconduct and continue to do so. We are committed to working closely with the incoming independent monitor to improve and further enhance our ethics and compliance program.” 

Stocks of European carmakers hemorrhaged on Monday as Stellantis and British luxury brand Aston Martin issued profit warnings, citing broader industry challenges and difficulties in the world’s largest auto market, China.

Stellantis on Monday trimmed its 2024 annual guidance on the back of deteriorating “global industry dynamics” and bolstered competition from China, sending Milan-listed shares lower on open.

The French-Italian conglomerate, known for brands such as Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Maserati, warned of lower-than-expected sales “across most regions” in the second half of the year. It now pencils in an adjusted operating income (AOI) margin between 5.5% to 7.0% for the full-year 2024 period, down from a “double digit” outlook.

“Deterioration in the global industry backdrop reflects a lower 2024 market forecast than at the beginning of the period, while competitive dynamics have intensified due to both rising industry supply, as well as increased Chinese competition,” the automaker said.

It also lowered projections for its industrial free cash flow to a range between minus 5 billion euros ($5.58 billion) to minus 10 billion euros, from a “positive” guidance previously, as a result of a lower anticipated AOI margin and temporarily higher working capital over the second half of this year.

The automaker further attributed the revisions to its guidance to “decisions to significantly enlarge remediation actions on North American performance issues,” but supplied no additional details. Earlier this year, Stellantis was sued by shareholders in the U.S. who claimed the automaker defrauded them by concealing rising inventories and other items, Reuters reported.

This month, Stellantis’ U.S. dealer network criticized CEO Carlos Tavares for the company’s recent sales decreases, factory production cuts, among other decisions that they assessed as detrimental to the automaker’s business.

The carmaker’s stock closed 14.7% lower on Monday.

British luxury carmaker Aston Martin, whose iconic models gained notoriety via appearances in the James Bond movie franchise, also flagged cuts in its profit margin and production target for the year.

It announced a roughly 1,000-unit reduction in response to “disruption in its supply chain and continued macroeconomic weakness in China,” anticipating that its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for 2024 will now come in below the previous year’s performance.

The company said it no longer expects to achieve positive free cash flow in the second half of this year, and noted that its full-year gross margin is anticipated to come in below 40%, compared with a previous target of around that threshold.

Aston Martin said it is “addressing the supply chain challenges and continues to recognise the significant market opportunity that China represents as its macroeconomic environment improves.”

The company’s shares closed 24.5% lower on Monday, its worst one-day fall since March 2020 according to LSEG data.

The Stellantis and Aston Martin profit warnings come days after German automaker Volkswagen once more slashed its own annual outlook on Friday, now guiding for an operating return on sales of 5.6% in 2024, from a 6.5-7.0% range previously.

In a Google-translated bourse filing, it attributed its lowered projections to lagging developments in its passenger car and commercial vehicle brands, along with a “deterioration of the macroeconomic environment, giving rise to further risks, particularly for the Core brand group.”

European carmakers have been struggling to retain their footing in China, whose own automakers are now targeting an expansion of their electric vehicle sales in Europe. The broader shift to EVs is “increasingly putting European carmakers under pressure while total new car sales fail to return to pre-pandemic levels in their home markets,” ING analysts warned at the start of this month.

Volkswagen shares were down around 2% as markets closed in London.

The Swiss National Bank on Thursday took a third step to loosen monetary policy this year, bringing its key interest rate down by 25 basis points to 1.0%.

The trim, which had been anticipated by 30 of 32 analysts surveyed in a Reuters poll, marked the SNB’s third interest rate reduction of 2024.

It was the first major Western central bank to reduce interest rates back in March.

The third trim comes amid similar signals from the European Central Bank and the U.S. Federal Reserve, which took the long-awaited plunge to slim down its interest rates with a 50-basis-point cut last week. Domestically, Swiss inflation remains subdued, with the latest headline print pointing to a 1.1% annual increase in August.

The Swiss franc gained ground against major currencies on the back of the latest interest rate decision. The U.S. dollar and euro were down nearly 0.14% and 0.16% against the Swiss coin, respectively.

The SNB acknowledged the broader trend of its currency rally as a key contributor to the Thursday reduction.

“Inflationary pressure in Switzerland has again decreased significantly compared to the previous quarter. Among other things, this decrease reflects the appreciation of the Swiss franc over the last three months,” it said in a statement.

“The SNB’s easing of monetary policy today takes the reduction in inflationary pressure into account. Further cuts in the SNB policy rate may become necessary in the coming quarters to ensure price stability over the medium term,” it added.

This breaking news story is being updated.