Twitter's first quarter results exceeded market expectations, but the increase in daily users fell slightly short of analysts' expectations. In addition, the short message service warned that user growth could weaken in the coming quarters. Shares fell 9.5 percent in after-hours trading. For the opening quarter, Twitter reported a net profit of $68 million, or 8 U.S. cents per share. That compares with a loss of $8.3 million, or 1 cent per share, a year earlier. Adjusted earnings per share were 16 U.S. cents, while analysts had expected only 14 cents here. Revenue rose to $1.04 billion from $807.6 million in the year-ago period. The number of daily users increased by 199 million in the period, up 20 percent from a year earlier. But analysts had expected a 200 million increase. For the current second quarter, Twitter forecasts revenue of between $980 million and $1.08 billion.

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The SMI lost 0.2 percent to 11,080 points, after it had already risen to 11,162 points at the day's high. Among the 20 SMI stocks, 14 price losers and six winners faced each other. 42.61 (previously: 43.45) million shares were traded. Clariant shares were down 4.2 percent despite good figures. EBITDA was about 6 percent above estimates, Citi said. All divisions are expected to grow this year, although this is not a surprise because of the base effect. In addition, Clariant had also pointed to high purchasing costs for raw materials. BASF's good figures also did not support the share price. "At present, the motto 'Sell on good news' characterizes the market," said a trader. Swisscom (+4.4%) increased its first-quarter profit significantly faster than sales and is somewhat more optimistic about the full year. After the strong figures from Apple, technology stocks in Switzerland also showed gains. Temenos, for example, rose by 1.6 percent, AMS lost 0.7 percent after an interim plus. Cyclical stocks, on the other hand, were not in demand. ABB lost 0.9 percent and the shares of Kühne + Nagel fell by 1.3 percent. The latter were also burdened by a downgrade to "Underperform" from "Neutral" by Bank of America.

Profit-taking dominated business on Europe's stock exchanges on Thursday, with the euro gaining further after the Fed meeting to close at 1.2112 dollars. The DAX, burdened by the strong euro, lost 0.9 percent to 15,154 points, for the Euro Stoxx 50 was down 0.5 percent to 3,997 points. For the auto sector, it went down by 2.6 percent. Volkswagen lost 3 percent, Daimler 2 percent, BMW 2.4 percent and Conti 4.4 percent. Good corporate figures were used in many cases to take profits: BASF fell 0.5 percent despite beating first-quarter expectations and raising its outlook. Aixtron immediately slumped by 9.7 percent - despite decent business figures. Clariant (-4.2%) also lost despite better business figures: "Currently, the motto 'Sell on good news' characterizes the market," said a trader. The figures of the Spanish energy company Repsol did not trigger a big jump in prices. Here it went down 1.1 percent, while Shell in the Netherlands lost 1.1 percent. Total was down 1.3 percent after the presentation of figures, OMV closed virtually unchanged. Unilever gained 3.3 percent after reporting figures. Adjusted sales growth came in above expectations. The consumer goods group also announced a new share buyback program. After an initial negative share price reaction, STMicro closed 1.7 percent firmer after better business figures. Lufthansa lost 3.2 percent after weak figures. In the steel sector, the business figures of Klöckner (up 0.8 percent) were strong. The company had its best quarter in twelve years.

Stocks rose, pushing the S&P 500 to a record, as investors cheered encouraging data on the economy, a strong batch of corporate earnings and the prospect of as much as $1.8 trillion in new government spending. The S&P 500 rose 28.29 points, or 0.7%, to 4211.47, eclipsing the record it set Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 239.98 points, or 0.7%, to 34060.36, and the Nasdaq Composite added 31.52 points, or 0.2%, to 14082.55. Apple had one of the best quarters in U.S. corporate history, reporting its quarterly profit more than doubled to a company record and it expects a surge in sales to continue. Shares, however, slipped 10 cents, or 0.1%, to $133.48. Facebook jumped $22.41, or 7.3%, to $329.51 after it reported a boom in its ad business that drove revenue and profit sharply higher. Qualcomm rose $6.11, or 4.5%, to $142.68 after reporting a jump in revenue boosted by high demand for 5G phones. Comcast gained $2.30, or 4.3%, to $56.40 after it posted a 55% rise in quarterly profit. On the other end, eBay tumbled $6.25, or 10%, to $56.07 - its worst one-day loss since 2016 - after saying it expects earnings for the current quarter to miss analysts’ expectations. After the closing bell, Amazon.com reported its profits more than tripled as demand remained robust for its deliveries, cloud-computing and advertising businesses, pushing shares up 4% after hours.

The Nikkei index in Tokyo is down 0.6 percent to 28,885 points after the holiday break the previous day. The strongest minus shows Hong Kong with 1.5 percent. In Seoul in South Korea, traders report losses in auto stocks, where the continuing global chip shortage weighs on sentiment.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note, which rises as bond prices fall, touched 1.688%, its highest intraday level in more than two weeks, before settling at 1.639%. Government bond yields climbed world-wide after signs of accelerating U.S. economic growth prompted worries that inflation will rise more rapidly than expected.

Berenberg raises target for Philips to EUR 52 (50) - Buy
NordLB raises BASF target to EUR 73 (66) - Hold
Alsterresearch raises Delivery Hero target to EUR 130 (120) - Hold

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