Marqeta, Inc. announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 45,454,546 shares of its Class A common stock at a public offering price of $27.00 per share. In addition, Marqeta has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 6,818,181 shares of its Class A common stock at the initial public offering price, less underwriting discounts and commissions. The first price was established at 32.50 dollars, well above the issue price of 27 dollars. At the close of trading, the stock was trading at $30.52, up 13.0 percent from the issue price. Based on the closing price, the valuation is about $16 billion. Marqeta's modern card issuing platform empowers its customers to create customized and innovative payment cards. Marqeta's open APIs provide instant access to highly scalable, cloud-based payment infrastructure that enables customers to launch and manage their own card programs, issue cards and authorize and settle payment transactions. The most important customer is the financial services provider Square. Marqeta is headquartered in Oakland, California and is certified to operate in 36 countries globally.

The Swiss stock market ended midweek trading with significant gains. The SMI closed at an all-time high. The index gained 1.1 percent to 11,788 points. Among the 20 SMI stocks, there were 11 gainers and 9 losers. A total of 32.54 (previously: 38.34) million shares were traded. As on previous days, the SMI was driven by pharmaceutical stocks. Lonza (+3.3%) and Roche (+3.1%) again benefited from the US approval of Biogen's Alzheimer's drug. Lonza also benefited from a significant price target increase by analysts at Jefferies. After Novartis (+2.3%) had recently lost out, the shares were now also sought after. It also went well for the luxury stock Richemont with increases of 0.8 percent. The shares of competitor Swatch (-0.4%), however, remained significantly behind. The shares of the index heavyweight Nestle gained 0.5 percent and pulled the index further up. Financial stocks were not in demand. Among banking stocks, CS Group lost 0.9 percent and UBS slipped 0.8 percent. Insurance stocks were also sold off: Swiss Re down 1.2 percent, Zurich Insurance down 0.6 percent, Swiss Life down 0.7 percent. Shares in asset manager Partners Group were down 0.5 percent. Among small caps, U-blox lost 0.5 percent. The company is reportedly broadening a new takeover offer for UK-based Telit Communications. Earlier takeover talks between the two companies had failed.

European stocks traded flat on Wednesday, a day ahead of key consumer prices Stateside, while a sharp rise in Chinese factory prices sent shares of miners lower. Airlines were among the gainers, after easing travel rules from the U.S. The Stoxx Europe 600 index was flat, in a week that has seen the index rise about 0.3% so far. The German DAX slipped 0.1%, the French CAC 40 was flat, and the FTSE 100 index was down 0.3%. While inflation is rising at a far less heated pace in the eurozone, markets will be closely watching Thursday's European Central Bank monetary policy decision, particularly to see if the central bank will keep its current pace of bond purchases intact. Fresh signs of global pricing pressures emerged from China on Wednesday, after factory-gate prices rose in May at their highest pace in nearly 13 years, driven by surging global commodity prices. China's consumer inflation remained tame in May, thanks to subdued food prices. Mining stocks responded to the Chinese data with losses, with shares of heavily weighted Rio Tinto, Anglo American and Glencore all down by more than 1%. Travel-related stocks were on the rise, after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eased travel restrictions for several European countries, including France, Spain and Italy, which are now Level 3, which means Americans can travel to those countries but must be fully vaccinated. The U.S. recommends against travel to countries with Level 4 ratings.
Shares of Aéroports de Paris, Air France-KLM and Deutsche Lufthansa rose by more than 2%. Shares of International Consolidated Airlines, easyJet, and Wizz Air all rose by more than 1%. Shares of Spain's Industria de Diseño Textil, which is known as Inditex and owns Zara and other clothing chains, fell 1%. The retailer said it swung to a net profit for the first quarter of the fiscal year, as sales returned to growth.

The S&P 500 wobbled in and out of record territory Wednesday before ending below its all-time closing high from early May. Losses in the financial, industrial and consumer sectors weighed against gains by healthcare stocks like Johnson & Johnson and tech stocks like Microsoft and Apple. The benchmark index dropped 7.71 points, or 0.2%, to 4219.55, off 0.3% from its May 7 record. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 152.68 points, or 0.4%, to 34447.14. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slipped 13.16 points, or 0.1%, to 13911.75.
The market has been subdued for much of the last two weeks as investors balance their confidence in the economic reopening against the risks of rising inflation, supply-chain problems and the possibility of higher taxes. The so-called meme stocks that have gained popularity on online forums mostly traded lower Wednesday. Clover Health Investments shares dropped $5.23, or 24% to $16.92, after surging 86% on Tuesday. AMC Entertainment Holdings shares fell $5.71, or 10%, to $49.34.

Led by the stock exchange in Shanghai (+0.8%), a friendly climate prevails on Thursday on the East Asian stock markets. The Nikkei index in Tokyo is up 0.3 percent to 28,951 points, Seoul and Hong Kong display similar increases. In Shanghai, a newcomer to the stock market is causing a stir and lifting the mood for shares in the renewable energy sector in general. China Three Gorges Renewables made a leap of 44 percent on its first day on the stock exchange. At the equivalent of a good 3.5 billion dollars, it is the largest IPO in the sector in Shanghai to date.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note dipped below 1.5% for the first time in a month, dragged down by tepid economic data and high demand from investors both in the U.S. and elsewhere. The yield dropped to 1.489%, down from 1.527% on Tuesday.

Citi raises Unicredit to Buy (Neutral) - Objective EUR 14.10 (10.70)
Berenberg increases Siemens target to EUR170 (162) - Buy
Jefferies lifts LVMH goal to EUR 750 (660) - Buy

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