Market Chatter: BlackRock Emerges as Preferred Manager for Dutch Pension Assets

Volkswagen expects the Group's operating sales return in 2026 to reach a maximum of only 1%, far below the previously projected 4% to 5.5%. The company anticipates that special items will impact full-year operating profit by about 10 billion euros, with around 6 billion euros attributable to non-cash impairments of goodwill in Porsche's operations. Increased competitiveness from Chinese automakers and accelerated consumer demand shift toward pure electric vehicles are also significant pressures facing Volkswagen. As a result of this news, Volkswagen's share price closed down 5.6% on Friday.

The US Treasury will conduct auctions of two-year, five-year, and seven-year Treasury bonds next week. Currently, traders are racing to borrow bonds to short them, driving the borrowing costs for short-term Treasuries sharply higher. On Friday, the overnight repo rate for borrowing the current two-year Treasury was about 0.79%, while the rate for the five-year even dropped to as low as -0.85%. In contrast, the repo rate for regular Treasuries was around 3.88%.