Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk said the company has suspended accepting bitcoin as payment for its vehicles. “We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal,” Mr. Musk said Wednesday on Twitter. Tesla earlier this year began to accept the cryptocurrency as payment for products sold in the U.S. The company also made a big financial bet on bitcoin when it bought $1.5 billion worth of the cryptocurrency in the first quarter. Tesla has since sold some of those holdings, a move that boosted first-quarter earnings. Mr. Musk said the company wouldn’t sell any bitcoin and would resume using the cryptocurrency for transactions “as soon as mining transitions to more sustainable energy.” Tesla’s earlier decision to accept bitcoin was a boost for the cryptocurrency, which wasn’t accepted widely in its early years. In 2014 and 2015, a number of companies, including Dell Technologies Inc., Microsoft Corp. , Overstock.com Inc. and Expedia Group Inc. experimented with bitcoin payments. Most quietly dropped it for lack of use. Last year PayPal Holdings Inc. opened its platform to bitcoin, allowing its millions of U.S. users to sell, buy and hold cryptocurrencies. The bitcoin dropped up to 14 percent according to Coindesk.

After two weak trading days, the Swiss stock market recovered on Wednesday. The upward movement was also supported by the franc, which fell back against the dollar, which gives opportunities to the export industry. Unexpectedly high inflation data in the U.S. kept alive concerns about an imminent turnaround in the monetary policy of central banks. Once again, the defensive nature of the SMI benchmark index also provided support. The SMI gained 0.4 percent to 11,034 points. Among the 20 SMI stocks, there were eleven price gainers and nine price losers. 34.82 (previously: 42.23) million shares were traded. The three heavyweights Nestle (+0.2%), Novartis (+1.4%) and Roche (+0.8%) cushioned the market with their premiums. Caution was also evident in the weakness of cyclicals, as ABB (-0.2%) and Holcim (barely changed) significantly lagged the market. Among financials, Zurich Insurance bucked the trend, shedding 0.3 percent after reporting quarterly results. Although gross premiums increased. "However, statements on the combined ratio are weighing on sentiment," a trader said. "This is obviously developing worse, and that is now depressing the price." Other financial stocks were up as much as 1.8 percent.

European stocks slid Thursday, as investors played catch up to heavy selling on Wall Street sparked by surging consumer price inflation.
Tracking losses across Asia and the U.S., the Stoxx Europe 600 index slid 1.5%, after a 0.3% gain on Wednesday. The German DAX fell 2%, the French CAC 40 index was down 1.8% and the FTSE 100 index was off 2.2%. Markets in Sweden and Switzerland were among those closed for the Ascension Day holiday. The pound was flat against the dollar, while the euro was slightly higher. Investors got spooked by a report showing U.S. inflation in the year to April climbed at its fastest pace in roughly 13 years, sparking fears of an overheating economy. More data is ahead for Thursday, with producer prices for April and weekly jobless claims. "You may get dull periods but this year is going to be a big battle between the bullishness of mass reopening/stimulus on one hand and the inflationary consequences on the other. Expect regular pockets of vol [volatility]," said a team of Deutsche Bank strategists led by Jim Reid, in a note to clients. Rising energy prices were a contributor to that U.S. inflation spike, though crude was down on Thursday, with crude and Brent futures both off around 2% a day after marking their best settlements since March. Shares of major energy companies Total, Royal Dutch Shell and BP were all down more than 2% each.
Mining stocks fell in step with weak iron ore prices. Shares of Rio Tinto fell over 3%, and Anglo American and BHP dropped 2.7% each. Moves earlier in the week by several Chinese commodity exchanges to lift trading and margin limits on iron ore contracts had failed to cool prices.
Elsewhere, shares of Telefonica climbed over 3%. The Spanish telecoms group posted a profit rise, though revenue dipped and said it expects to meet 2021 guidance. Shares of Burberry slumped 7% for the Stoxx 600's worst performer. The luxury retailer said operating profit more than doubled in fiscal 2021, well ahead of market views, with sales lifted by China and the U.S.

The New York Stock Exchange ended higher on Thursday, ending three sessions of decline, after weekly jobless claims in the United States fell to their lowest level since the outbreak of the health crisis. At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) rebounded 1.3% to 34,021 points. The broader S&P 500 Index gained 1.2% to 4,112 points. Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index closed up 0.7 percent at 13,124 points, although it fell sharply during the session. Boeing (+0.8%) won approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for measures to resolve an electrical problem that grounded more than 100 of its 737 MAX single-aisle jets, the aircraft manufacturer and a representative of the U.S. civil aviation authority announced. Italy's competition authority on Thursday fined Alphabet subsidiary Google (+1%) more than 100 million euros for abuse of a dominant position. The regulator accused Google of refusing to accept the JuicePass application, developed by the Italian energy group Enel, on its Google Auto system for motorists. The American fast-food group McDonald's (+0.8%) announced on Thursday that it would increase the wages of more than 36,500 hourly employees in the United States by an average of 10% over the next few months. Non-management employees at the chain's roughly 660 U.S.-owned restaurants will earn at least $11 to $17 an hour at starting levels after the raises, McDonald's said. Amazon (+0.3%) announced the hiring of 75,000 logistics and material handling workers in the U.S. and Canada, with an average starting wage of $17 an hour. The e-commerce giant also said it would offer a hiring bonus of up to $1,000.

After three days of losses, some of which were heavy, the stock markets in East Asia are showing gains almost across the board at the end of the trading week. The most significant upward trend on Friday was on the Tokyo stock exchange. The Nikkei index rises by 2.1 percent to 25,036 points. Also at the Chinese stock exchanges the stock exchange barometers point upward. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index advances 1.0 percent, and in mainland China, Shanghai is up 1.2 percent. In South Korea (+0.9%), the share price of the index heavyweight Samsung Electronics rises by 1.9 percent. Meanwhile, on the stock market in Singapore, rising Covid 19 figures weigh on sentiment.

The 10-year U.S. Treasury caught a bid on Thursday, stoking a firm pull back from its highest yield levels in about 5 weeks, even after a reading of producer-prices for April jumped 0.6%, far above forecasts for a 0.3% rise. Year over year, wholesale inflation rose 6.2% versus a 4.2% rise in March. The 10-year Treasury note BX:TMUBMUSD10Y was yielding 1.666%, down 3.3 basis points, based on a 3 p.m. Eastern Time close.

Wells Fargo increases Netflix target to USD 700 (510) - Overweight
Citi lowers Roche's target to CHF 285 (395) - Buy
Stifel increases Covestro's target to EUR 67 (50) - Buy
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