By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- Call it the ghost of Dieselgate.
Shares in Germany’s big three carmakers are all starting the week under pressure from a preliminary ruling on Friday from the European Union Commission that they conspired to delay cleaner, more efficient diesel technology due to other commercial considerations.
BMW (DE:BMWG) was the worst hit after announcing it will take a charge of up to 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) against its first-quarter earnings to provision against a possible antitrust fine. It was down 0.5% as of 04:15 AM ET (08:00 GMT). Daimler (DE:DAIGn), the maker of Mercedes-Benz autos, was down 0.2% while paradoxically, Volkswagen (DE:VOWG_p), whose name is tied most closely to the diesel scandal, actually eked out a gain of 0.5%.
Meanwhile, the mirror image of the diesel scandal is on view in Milan. Fiat Chrysler (MI:FCHA) is leading the FTSE MIB 30 after announcing at the weekend that it will join an emissions ‘pool’ set up by Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) in order to ensure that its vehicle fleet meets EU standards on average carbon dioxide emissions. Under the arrangement, Fiat Chrysler will pay Tesla for carbon credits generated by sales of its emission-free vehicles.
The EU’s scheme is designed to reward innovators in clean energy while giving some flexibility to conventional automakers. Fiat Chrysler, which depends increasingly on its sales of Jeep SUVs for its profits, has more trouble than most in meeting the EU’s emissions goals and the deal with Tesla represents a big loosening of what could have been a painful constraint on it.
Elsewhere, oil and gas companies are generally higher as crude oil prices push to new highs for 2019 on the back of an interview with Saudi Oil Minister Khalid al-Falih, who told Bloomberg that global inventories are still too high. Crude prices are also being supported by a rise in violence in Libya, which now threatens to engulf one of the country’s biggest oil export terminals. As such, Italian major ENI (NYSE:E) and the U.K.’s BP (LON:BP) – both of which have operations in Libya – are both down on the day.
The broader market is slipping after a soft start to the week in Asia. At 04:15 AM ET (0810 GMT), the benchmark Euro Stoxx 600 was down 0.78 points, or 0.2% at 387.46. The U.K. FTSE 100 was down 0.3% at the start of a defining week for Brexit, while Germany’s Dax was down 0.4%.