Hello,

Welcome to our flagship newsletter, MarketBeat Daily Ratings.

We'll deliver the latest "Buy" and "Sell" ratings from Wall Street's top-rated analysts directly to your inbox each morning.

But first, we need you to do two quick things:

1. Hit reply, and send a simple "Yes." Just one word. This tells Google (and other emails providers) that you actually want to get our newsletter.

2. After that, this link to confirm your subscription. That will tell us that you received our welcome email and that we should start sending your daily report. 

Confirm your subscription here.

After you have completed these two steps, we would like to gift you a free copy of one of our most popular investing reports: 7 Stocks to Buy and Hold Forever. You can download the report with this link.

Thank you again for subscribing. We look forward to being an important part of your investing journey

Matthew Paulson
Founder and CEO, MarketBeat.

P.S. If you didn’t intend to subscribe, no problem—you can unsubscribe with this link.

(ARReply-161)

3 European Banks That Could Win Big From ECB Rate Hikes

Author: Dan Schmidt. Published: 9/14/2026.

While Federal Reserve officials debate (and debate) whether to raise interest rates in September, their counterparts at the European Central Bank have already gone full Leroy Jenkins. The ECB’s Governing Council raised each of its three benchmark rates by 25 basis points during its June meeting for the first time since 2023, then hiked again to 2.5% on Sept. 10 after holding rates steady in July. The ECB is the only major Western central bank to hike during the current cycle, and its leadership argues that the increases are necessary to curb rising inflation expectations driven by the Iran War energy shock.

A hiking cycle during a supply shock carries credit risks that a demand-driven shock does not, and investors should be aware of that specter hanging over the banking sector. But the Euro Stoxx Bank index has doubled over the last two years, and many of Europe’s largest banks are increasing their 2026 net interest income (NII) guidance in response to higher projected rates. Who benefits most? Eurozone banks with floating-rate loans and low deposit betas. The following three firms are well-positioned to profit from an ECB hiking cycle.

Banco Santander: Variable Mortgages Provide Upside Potential

Jon Najarian's #1 Energy Trade for 2026 (Ad)

Jon Najarian says he's never been more excited about an energy opportunity. SpaceX just went public at over $2 trillion, with Anthropic and OpenAI preparing IPOs of their own.

But Najarian's top pick isn't an IPO. It's a small American company with a $6 billion market cap powering Elon Musk's newest venture, dubbed the Infinite Power Grid.

The full story is laid out in his newly released presentation.

Watch Jon Najarian's full breakdown of this energy trade now.

Interest rates get plenty of attention in the U.S., but changes in the short-term federal funds rate rarely affect consumers’ day-to-day lives. That’s not the case in Europe, where floating-rate mortgages are much more common. In an April 2026 survey from Spain’s Instituto Nacional de Estadística, more than 37% of mortgages originated during the period were variable-rate, up from 30% in August 2022, when the benchmark rate was peaking. Floating-rate mortgages are linked to the Euribor index and will reprice within months following ECB hikes.

Banco Santander S.A. (NYSE: SAN) is one of the EU’s biggest mortgage lenders, and more than 34% of its loans are residential mortgages. As of Q2 2026, more than 41% of its mortgage book was floating-rate, creating significant interest income upside during a hiking cycle.

Analysts raised their 2026 NII consensus estimate for Santander by 1.9%, while the bank’s efficiency ratio improved to 42.8%.

SAN shares have gained more than 20% in the last three months and could be nearing a key entry point for new positions. The 50-day moving average has kept the stock in an uptrend for nearly two years, acting as bear repellent whenever sellers coalesce. Now, the share price is once again approaching this level, and with the Relative Strength Index (RSI) still showing healthy momentum, it could present another opportunity for dip buyers.

BBVA: Same Mortgage Dynamics, Bigger NII Upside

Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. (NYSE: BBVA) is another Iberian bank with tremendous upside thanks to its mortgage book and more heavily euro-denominated business. Like Santander, BBVA has a significant variable-rate mortgage book (38% floating versus 62% fixed as of Q2 2026) with a very low-risk lending profile.

The bank posted results above expectations for both earnings per share and revenue in fiscal Q2 2026, and management raised its group return on tangible equity (ROTE) guidance to approximately 21%.

The 2026 NII consensus estimate for BBVA was also revised up 2.3%—the largest upgrade among banks directly exposed to ECB rate moves.

BBVA shares erased all of their 2026 gains by spring and nearly dipped into the trouble zone below the 200-day moving average more than once. But the stock has since ripped more than 30% higher in the last three months, and the trend is pointing upward again. The RSI has also retreated from its overbought reading, which may entice buyers to resume pushing the price higher.

Deutsche Bank: Deposit Beta Upside Without the Mortgage Book

Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE: DB) was the punchline of many jokes in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis, but the German bank is finally getting its laughs in after a more than 200% surge over the last five years. Unlike the two previous examples, DB doesn’t have a significant floating-rate mortgage portfolio. Instead, it has a sticky deposit base that’s growing through M&A.

Just not its own M&A. The Italian-based UniCredit S.p.A. (OTCMKTS: UNCRY) has plans to close its Commerzbank merger by the end of Q4 2026, which could be advantageous for DB’s deposit beta. A company closing a merger is unlikely to start a rate-promotion war, and the integration could be more protracted than management anticipates. This leaves one of DB’s biggest deposit competitors on standby and allows the bank to keep growing without offering rate promotions.

DB shares are also up 30% in the last three months and recently notched a new high in the post-GFC era. The MACD indicator shows bullish momentum at its highest point of the year, while a Golden Cross points to a renewed upward long-term trend.