AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. ("AMC" or "the Company"), announced that it has completed its 11.550 million share at-the-market ("ATM") equity program launched earlier today. AMC raised approximately $587.4 million of new equity capital, before commissions and fees, at an average price of approximately $50.85 per share. Commenting on the capital raise, AMC President and CEO Adam Aron said, "Bringing in an additional $587.4 million of new equity on top of the $658.5 million already raised this quarter results in a total equity raise in the second quarter of $1.246 billion, substantially strengthening and improving AMC's balance sheet, providing valuable flexibility to respond to potential challenges and capitalize on attractive opportunities in the future.“ AMC is the largest movie exhibition company in the United States, the largest in Europe and the largest throughout the world with approximately 950 theatres and 10,500 screens across the globe. The market churn on Thursday hit the meme stocks, with AMC Entertainment Holdings swinging violently. Shares dropped $11.21, or 18%, to $51.34, paring an earlier decline of 40%. “Under the circumstances, we caution you against investing in our Class A common stock, unless you are prepared to incur the risk of losing all or a substantial portion of your investment,” the company said in the SEC filing.

With small increases, the Swiss stock market reached a new record high on Thursday. The old high was exceeded by nine points. However, not only the lofty heights slowed down the leading index, but also the regional Corpus Christi holiday. The SMI gained 0.4 percent to 11,511 points. Among the 20 SMI stocks, there were 12 price gainers and 8 losers, and 0 shares closed unchanged. 27.86 (previously: 27.67) million shares were traded. This provided Thursday for rising market rates, which brought the bank stocks up. Credit Suisse, for example, gained 0.8 percent and UBS 1.2 percent. The index plus was carried by the heavyweights Nestle (+0.3%), Novartis (+0.7%) and Roche (+1.1%). Profits were bagged in the recently extremely firm Richemont share (-1%). The company had as a beneficiary of the reopened economy numerous positive analyst voices on itself. Swatch shares followed down 0.6%. Givaudan (+0.4%) reacted with small gains to news that the flavor maker is partnering with Chinese online retail giant Alibaba. This involves digital opportunities for luxury perfumery in China. Schaffner was able to benefit from the economic recovery in the first half of 2020/21 thanks to its good position in its core markets. Shares in the electrical components manufacturer from Luterbach rose by 1.2 percent.

European stocks edged back from record highs on Thursday with markets awaiting pivotal U.S. jobs data. Up 13% this year, the Stoxx Europe 600 slipped 0.2%. Ahead of the release of Friday's jobs report, ADP will release its estimate of private-sector payrolls, and the Institute for Supply Management will report on the services purchasing managers index. It also will be the first opportunity to react to the news the Federal Reserve is selling its corporate bond portfolio acquired during the crisis. A bipartisan infrastructure spending package is still a possibility after President Joe Biden and Republican senator Shelley Moore Capito agreed to hold another round of talks on Friday. French construction materials company Saint-Gobain rose 4% after it forecast record operating income in the first half of the year. B&M European Value Retail fell 3% as the retailer said U.K. like-for-like sales in the first nine weeks of fiscal 2022 fell 1%, as it forecast a decline in margins for the year. In France, it said sales were "pleasing" since the lockdown ended on May 19. B&M more than doubled its profit in the year ending March 27 on 24% like-for-like sales growth in the U.K. Retail group Casino (+2.7%) and digital giant Amazon announced Thursday a strengthening of their partnership in France, deploying a new "click and collect" service. Much to the surprise of market participants, Portugal is to be removed again from the list of safe destinations by the British government, the BBC reported. This would eliminate one of the main markets for British tourists. Tui fell 4.4 percent in London, Lufthansa 3.5 percent. Ryanair and Easyjet lost even up to 5 percent.

U.S. stocks fell Thursday as fresh weekly data showed a continued recovery in the labor market and traders kept a close eye on any potential policy shifts from the Federal Reserve. The S&P 500 fell 15.27 points, or 0.4%, to 4192.85, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 23.34 points, or 0.1%, to 34577.04. The Nasdaq Composite lost 141.82 points, or 1%, to 13614.51, dragged down by the tech stocks that propelled the market higher during the pandemic. Meanwhile, a handful of other stocks popular on online forums continued to move erratically in frenzied trading. BlackBerry gained 63 cents, or 4.1%, to $15.88 after trading up more than 30%, and Sundial Growers climbed 16 cents, or 14%, to $1.29. Exxon Mobil (+0.4%) announced Wednesday evening that its shareholders had voted to elect three representatives of the Engine No. 1 investment fund to the oil company's board of directors. Twitter (-0.2%) on Thursday launched a new paid service in Canada and Australia, as the platform looks for ways to monetize its content beyond advertising. Called Twitter Blue, the new offering will allow users to create bookmarks to categorize their tweets and will also provide them with an option to correct their messages before sending.

Negative guidance from the U.S. dampened the buying mood on the East Asian stock exchanges on Friday. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index falls by 0.4 percent to 28,943 points. On the stock exchange in Seoul, South Korea, the Kospi is down 0.1 percent. In contrast, the stock markets in Shanghai and Hong Kong have made the turn into the plus and trend well maintained. The fact that the U.S. has put more Chinese companies on the blacklist, weighed only initially.

U.S. 10-year Treasury yields were marginally higher at 1.627% from 1.591% on Wednesday. This is also below a recent high of 1.683% and the March highs of about 1.73%. Yields have risen sharply and bond prices fallen in recent weeks as investor concern grew that rising inflation would lead central banks to start tightening their monetary policy by reducing their bond purchases.

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