Robinhood Markets Inc., the trading app synonymous with hot stocks, got a cold reception from investors in its own stock-market debut. The investing app tumbled in its highly anticipated trading debut Thursday, closing 8.4% below its initial public offering price. Robinhood stock opened at $38, matching the IPO price, and quickly fell more than 10%. The stock later climbed to approach the IPO price before falling again in the final hour of trading to close at $34.82. The company’s stock is listed on Nasdaq under the symbol HOOD.

The Swiss stock market ended trading on Thursday with a slight gain. The focus was on the current reporting season. The SMI was weighed down by Nestle and Credit Suisse. The SMI gained 0.1 per cent to 12,087 points. Among the 20 SMI stocks, there were 12 price gainers and 6 price losers, Zurich Insurance and Roche closed unchanged. 40.09 (previously: 21.75) million shares were traded. The share of the index heavyweight Nestle fell by 0.4 per cent. Here, investors probably took accumulated profits after the share had a good run. The food company increased its profit in the first half of the year and raised its sales forecast for the full year. Credit Suisse also offered a glimpse into its books. The big bank was back in the black in the second quarter, but the figures were lower than expected. The collapse of the US hedge fund Archegos at the end of March once again burdened the result with 594 million Swiss francs. The share gained 1.7 per cent and was thus the day's winner together with Partners Group (+1.7 per cent).

The European equity indices ended higher on Thursday, buoyed by another round of positive corporate results and the prospect of continued accommodative policy in the US. The Stoxx Europe 600 index closed up 0.5% at 463.8 points. In Paris, the CAC 40 and the SBF 120 gained 0.4% to 6,633.77 points and 0.3% to 5,185.70 points respectively. In Frankfurt, the DAX 30 advanced 0.5% and the FTSE 100 in London gained 0.9%. Bayer AG sees expenses from lawsuits accusing its Roundup weedkiller of causing cancer potentially rising by $4.5 billion—significantly more than it had previously planned for. The company will set aside the additional funds to cover Roundup claims in its next quarterly financial report, Bayer executives said Thursday. The new provisions would raise Bayer’s funds earmarked for the claims to more than $16 billion from the $11.6 billion the company had previously said it would pay to resolve the cases. Airbus SE shares rose in early trading on Thursday after the European plane maker lifted its profitability, delivery and cash flow guidance for the year after a strong second-quarter performance. The company also announced it will launch a freighter variant of its A350 jet. Though a guidance upgrade was expected by analysts, the market is welcoming Airbus’s new targets for the year that include the delivery of about 600 commercial aircraft compared with a previous target to at least match the 566 deliveries it achieved last year.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 rose 0.4%, but both benchmarks fell shy of fresh records as new data suggested the economic recovery has started to slow. The Nasdaq Composite also rose, gaining 0.1%. The gains followed data showing gross domestic product grew by 6.5% on an annualized basis in the second quarter, up slightly from earlier in the year but well below analysts' forecasts of 8.4% growth. Meanwhile, jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, came in at 400,000, resuming their downward trajectory but coming in above projections. Hershey Co. said its profit and sales for the second quarter rose as it saw recovery in away-from-home consumption and international markets, while at-home consumption continued. The candy maker posted net income attributable to the company of $301.2 million, compared with $268.9 million a year earlier. Sales rose 16.5% to $1.99 billion. Hershey cited a stronger-than-anticipated recovery in the company’s away-from-home business and international markets. Some U.S.-listed Chinese tech stocks recovered from recent losses after the Chinese government sought to reassure global banks and investors about the recent volatility in markets, saying that Beijing would consider the market impact of future policies.

At the end of the week, the lights on the stock markets in East Asia are red. In Tokyo, an additional negative factor is that Japan is reportedly considering extending the lockdown measures due to the spread of the Corona pandemic to other parts of the country. So far, these only apply to Tokyo and Okinawa. On the Chinese stock markets, a technical counter-reaction after the very strong gains of the previous two days is also likely to play a role. Tokyo's Nikkei index lost 1.6 per cent to 27,230 points.

Long-term Treasury yields rose on economic data showing strong recovery, although not as much as expected. The 10-year yield is at 1.268%, after reaching 1.289% shortly after the economic data release.

CS rises the BASF target to 80 (79) EUR – Outperform
CS rises the Santander target to 3,50 (3,40) EUR – Outperform
UBS rises the Michelin target to 160 (155) EUR – Buy

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