Sanofi announced that it has signed an agreement with Germany's Stada to sell 16 of its consumer healthcare products marketed in Europe. The amount of the transaction was not specified. "The agreement covers the registered trademarks, brands and marketing rights of 16 products sold in various European countries," Sanofi said in a statement. "As we stated at our Capital Markets Day in February, simplifying the consumer healthcare portfolio is an important part of our strategy to focus our resources and efforts where we can bring the most value, particularly to consumers," Julie Van Ongevalle, executive vice president of Sanofi Consumer Healthcare, was quoted as saying in the statement.

The Swiss stock market held up well on Monday. Market participants spoke of low momentum trading and summer lethargy. There was little activity in the SMI, which was probably also due to the thin news flow. The index gained 0.1 per cent to 12,009 points. Among the 20 SMI stocks, there were twelve price losers and seven price winners, and one share closed unchanged. 27.15 (previously: 30.15) million shares were traded. A renewed decline in bond yields weighed somewhat on financial stocks. The prices of the banks CS Group and UBS fell by 1.6 and 0.9 per cent respectively. Insurers also weakened. In contrast, defensive stocks such as Nestle (+0.2 per cent) or the shares of pharmaceutical manufacturers Novartis (+0.3 per cent) and Roche (+0.9 per cent) were in demand. Novartis announced a personnel development: the current Chief Human Resources Officer Steven Baert is stepping down from his post after 15 years with the company. His successor will be Rob Kowalski, previously Global Head Regulatory Affairs and US Head of Drug Development.

The main European equity indices fell on Monday as investors opted for caution at the start of a week that will be marked by the publication of the US jobs report on Friday. The Stoxx Europe 600 index fell 0.6% to 454.9 points. In Paris, the CAC 40 and the SBF 120 lost 1% each. In Frankfurt, the DAX 30 was down 0.3%, while in London, the FTSE 100 was down 0.9%. d of Drug Development. Nokia shares jumped 6.4%, catching up to a rally to its U.S.-listed stock after Goldman Sachs lifted its rating on the telecom equipment maker to buy from neutral. Shares of U.K. luxury goods group Burberry slumped 7% after Marco Gobbetti said he would be leaving the company at the end of the year to take the same role at leather goods maker Salvatore Ferragamo in his native Italy. Burberry said it has begun a search for his successor. U.K. bakery Greggs rose 3% in early trading before losing some of those gains, after saying the sales recovery since its May 10 update was stronger than anticipated.

The Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 advanced to records on Monday, powered by gains in technology stocks. The tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 140.12 points, or 1%, to close at 14500.51. The S&P ticked up 9.91, or 0.2%, to 4290.61, adding to its gains after the broad-based index posted its biggest weekly advance since February last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 150.57, or 0.4%, to 34283.27, weighed down by losses at Boeing and Chevron.Tesla Inc. is addressing a safety issue in more than 285,000 passenger vehicles in China – including more than 90% of locally made vehicles sold by the company – associated with their cruise-control system, the country's market regulator said. The fix, which the State Administration for Market Regulation called a recall, requires affected Tesla customers to upgrade their cruise-control software remotely and doesn't require going to the dealer, the Chinese regulator and company said Saturday. Shares of Boeing dropped 2.9%, weighing on the Dow. The Seattle Times reported over the weekend that federal regulators told the plane maker an updated version of its 777 long-haul airliner was not ready for certification, and likely wouldn't be until late 2023. Danske has dialed down its holdings of U.S. stocks and bought more shares in Europe, where Mr. Øland said the economic recovery is still accelerating.

Despite good news from Wall Street, with some indices setting new records, the East Asian stock exchanges and the share market in Sydney are on a downward trend on Tuesday. Fears of an expansion of the delta variant of the Covid 19 virus dominated events, market participants reported; especially since in countries such as Japan the vaccination of the population is not too far advanced. Meanwhile, in Australia, the recent lockdown to contain a new outbreak of the virus has been extended from Sydney to Perth. Tokyo's Nikkei index is bringing up the rear with a drop of around 1 per cent to 28,775 points. The other indices are down between 0.6 and 0.9 per cent.

U.S. Treasury yields were steady in Asia after they pulled back on Monday, with some attributing buying in debt to positioning ahead of the end of the month and completion of the second quarter. Some strategists also pointed to a pickup in global tensions after U.S. airstrikes overnight in Iraq and Syria.

IR lowers the Vivendi target to 30 (30,50) EUR – Hold
UBS rises the Continental target to 162 (160) EUR – Buy
UBS rises the Michelin target to 155 (150) EUR – Buy

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