Apple's brand value increased by 87 per cent to 263.4 billion US dollars, the highest value of any brand worldwide, according to Brand Finance. Apple benefited from the new iPhone models in the Christmas business despite delayed product launches. Strong demand for tablets and laptops also continued. The stock was initially little changed in after-hours trading, but has already gained about 80 per cent since the beginning of the year. Although many people around the world are suffering from the economic consequences of the Corona pandemic, net income in the first quarter of the new financial year (ending December) rose by 29 per cent to 28.76 billion dollars or 1.68 dollars per share. This exceeded market expectations. Analysts had expected a surplus of 24 billion dollars or 1.41 dollars per share in the Factset consensus. Revenue rose to 111.4 billion dollars, cracking the 100 billion mark for the first time. For the current second quarter, analysts expect revenue growth of almost 30 per cent to 74 billion dollars.

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Doubts about a viable economic recovery from the Corona pandemic slump weighed on the Swiss stock market on Wednesday. The SMI lost 0.5 per cent to 10,904 points. Among the 20 SMI stocks, there were 17 price losers and three price gainers. 61.28 (previously: 56) million shares were traded. Investors sold cyclical stocks such as ABB (-0.6 per cent), Geberit (-0.4 per cent) and Sika (-1.7 per cent) and went for defensive stocks instead. Index heavyweight Nestle supported the broad market with a gain of 0.4 per cent. However, Swisscom shares, which are also considered defensive, recorded the most significant gain, rising by 4.7 per cent. Shares in banks and insurance companies mostly fell more sharply. Here, the renewed drop in bond interest rates probably weighed on the performance. UBS and CS Group fell by 1.2 and 1.7 per cent. Swiss Life and Swiss Re fell by 1.4 and 0.8 per cent. In the pharmaceuticals sector, the shares of Lonza fell by 1.7 per cent despite the presentation of good figures. Among other things, Lonza produces the active ingredient for the Covid 19 vaccine of the US group Moderna.

European equity markets suffered a further sharp decline on Wednesday, following Monday's decline, led by uncertainty on the health front and fears linked to recent upward movements on Wall Street. Against this backdrop, investors are awaiting comments from the US Federal Reserve (Fed) in the evening. The Stoxx Europe 600 index fell 1.2% to 402.98 points. Cyclical sectors such as banks (down 2.1%) and commodities, which fell 3.6% on average, were under pressure. Cars lost on average 2%. Technology stocks also experienced a slight decline of 2.2%. Telecom stocks were the winners of the day, with gains of 1.6%. In Paris, the CAC 40 and SBF 120 declined by 1.2% and 1% respectively. In Frankfurt, the DAX 30 dropped 1.8%, while the FTSE 100 in London dropped 1.3%. Casino won 3.5%, Air France-KLM took 2.7% and Eutelsat 1.3%, while TF1 won 5.8%. EDF (-2.8%) announced Wednesday that the start of electricity production by Unit 1 of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in the United Kingdom had been postponed to June 2026.

The US stock markets posted sharp declines on Wednesday after the US Federal Reserve put a damper on hopes for a quick recovery. The Dow Jones index lost 2.0 per cent to 30,303 points and the S&P 500 fell 2.6 per cent. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite was down 2.6 per cent. The mere 543 (Tuesday: 1,318) gainers were offset by a preponderance of 2,698 (1,857) losers, while 37 (100) stocks exited the session unchanged. Microsoft climbed 0.2 per cent. Strong cloud business and high demand for video games and computers had continued to drive strong growth for the software company in its second fiscal quarter. Profits also increased and exceeded analysts' expectations. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) lost 6.2 per cent, although the semiconductor company shone with good business figures and its outlook was also above expectations. However, the share price had risen by 88 per cent in the past year, which indicates that investors are taking accumulated profits. Texas Instruments fell 5.0 per cent. The chip company had performed better than expected in the fourth quarter, which also applied to the outlook. Here, too, investors are likely to have taken profits after the recent rally. Starbucks lost 6.5 per cent. The US coffee house chain had reported a 5 per cent drop in sales in its first quarter to the end of December due to the pandemic. The company's results exceeded its own forecasts. Nevertheless, the net result fell by 30 per cent. AT&T fell by 2.0 per cent. A massive write-down on the satellite TV operator DirecTV brought the telecommunications and entertainment group a loss of billions in the fourth quarter. Gamestop shot up another 135 per cent. Bullish private investors have been driving the share up for weeks via social media. Its price has already risen by over 600 per cent since the beginning of the year.

The Asian stock markets follow Wall Street's slide on Thursday. In Tokyo, the Nikkei-225 falls by 1.4 per cent to 28,239 points - despite a lower yen compared to the previous day. In China, a similar picture: Shanghai Composite and HSI in Hong Kong lose 1.1 and 1.7 per cent respectively. The Kospi in Seoul falls by 1.7 per cent.

US bonds were in demand. The yield on ten-year paper fell by 2.6 basis points to 1.01 per cent as prices rose.

Citi raises BBVA target to EUR 4.75 (4.65) - Buy
CS increases STMicro target to EUR 38.50 (35) - Outperform
Dt. Bank raises Lanxess target to EUR 77 (70) - Buy

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