The listing of Swedish oat-milk producer Oatly Group AB at the Nasdaq this week may appeal to environmentally focused investors, as a consumer-facing company with green credentials and international expansion plans. Consumption of plant-based food and drinks, which have a smaller ecological footprint in terms of greenhouse-gas emissions, land usage and energy consumption compared with that of meat and dairy, has been growing for years. The global market for dairy alternatives, valued at $20.5 billion in 2020, is expected to grow 12.5% annually from 2021 to 2028, according to Grand View Research. Still loss-making, Oatly's sales grew 106% last year to $421 million, company filings show. Oatly, which recently launched a U.S. nationwide rollout with Starbucks, is backed by investors such as Verlinvest and Blackstone Group, as well as celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Jay-Z and former Starbucks founder Howard Schultz. At the close of trading, the stock was trading at $20.20, up 18.8 percent from the issue price.

After midweek markdowns, the Swiss stock market ended Thursday's trading session on a positive note. The SMI gained 1.0 percent to 11,152 points. Among the 20 SMI stocks, there were 17 price gainers and 3 losers. Turnover was 38.91 (previously: 39.42) million shares. It went particularly well for some financial stocks, which benefited from the tapering discussion. The shares of asset manager Partners Group rose 2.8 percent to top the SMI. Credit Suisse advanced 2.3 percent. Shares of competitor UBS lagged slightly behind, with premiums of 1.5 percent. The EU fined the bank 172.4 million euros for collusion in trading. Meanwhile, a number of insurance stocks found themselves at the lower end, with Zurich Insurance down 0.1 percent and Swiss Re closing virtually unchanged. Shares in index heavyweight Nestle gained 1.0 percent. The food company is investing 220 million US dollars in a new beverage factory in Indonesia. The shares of the two pharmaceutical groups Roche and Novartis showed a divided picture. While Roche gained 1.2 percent, Novartis gained just 0.1 percent. With regard to Roche, market participants referred to positive study results with "Tecentriq" in lung cancer patients.

European stocks recovered some of the previous day's losses in early action on Thursday, with the overhang of inflation still in the air. After losing 1.5% on Wednesday, the Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.6%. Of stocks on the move, Trainline shares dropped 29%, as the U.K. government introduced a sweeping rail-infrastructure reform plan that would include running a rival ticketing app. Nordic Semiconductor shot up 10%, after larger rival STMicroelectronics was reported by the Italian daily MF to have started talks to buy the Oslo-listed company. The U.K. budget airline easyJet PLC said on Thursday that its pretax loss widened for the first half of fiscal 2021 as revenue fell due to the pandemic, and that it expects to fly at around 15% of 2019 levels during the third quarter. Bouygues SA declared on Thursday that it swung to net profit in the first quarter on higher revenue compared with the previous year, when the company was affected by the coronavirus pandemic, and backed its 2021 outlook. Telecom Italia SpA's adjusted net profit fell slightly on stable revenue in the first quarter, as the company confirmed its growth forecasts for the coming years. Deutsche Telekom AG set new financial targets and main areas of focus for the years until 2024 in order to boost its growth, the company said ahead of its capital markets day on Thursday .

Stocks rebounded after jobless claims data showed that the labor market continued to recover, helping major indexes snap a three-day losing streak. The S&P 500 edged up 43.44 points, or 1.1%, to 4159.12, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 188.11 points, or 0.6%, to 34084.15. The Nasdaq Composite added 236 points, or 1.8%, to 13535.74. Bitcoin rose 4.5% to $40,107.62 as of 5 p.m. ET Thursday following a frenzied selloff the previous day when cryptocurrencies plunged. Ether rose 8.9% to $2,761.80, and dogecoin gained 15% to nearly 40 cents. The continued retail struggle could signal a temporary change in consumer behavior as the vaccine rollout continues. Shares of Ralph Lauren dropped 7%, while Gap and L Brands each fell about 4%. Shares of Virgin Galactic Holdings rose 15% after the aerospace and space-travel company confirmed that the next test flight of its SpaceShipTwo Unity will be conducted Saturday, pending weather and technical checks. Social network Snap (+6%) introduced new features for its Snapchat app, which now has 500 million monthly active users, according to CEO Evan Spiegel. The European Commission announced on Thursday that it had signed a third contract with BioNTech (+2.3%) and Pfizer (+0.7%) for the supply of doses of their vaccine against Covid-19. The contract covers the purchase of 900 million doses, with an option to purchase an additional 900 million doses.

The indices on the East Asian stock markets are showing small losses at the end of the week. An exception is Tokyo, where the Nikkei index gained 0.7 percent to 28,303 points. In the other places it drops - partly after more significant initial gains - between 0.1 and 0.5 percent. According to a media report, the Japanese government is expected to give the green light for the Covid 19 vaccines from Moderna and Astrazeneca

Long-dated U.S. government bond yields retreated Thursday, supported by buying that drove rates lower and prices higher, with strategists pointing to bargain hunting by fixed-income investors in a market viewed as slightly oversold in recent days. The 10-year Treasury note yield was at 1.631%, off by about 4.9 basis points from Thursday’s level at 3 p.m. Eastern Time. The yield move reflected the biggest such one-day slide since April 15, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Berenberg lowers BT to Hold (Buy) - Target 175 (165) p
Jefferies raises Julius Baer target to CHF 72 (62) - Buy
Jefferies raises Sixt target to EUR 118 (110) - Hold
Produced by MBI Martin Brückner Infosource GmbH & Co. KG on behalf of Swissquote. All news is acquired with journalistic accuracy. No liability is assumed for delays or errors.