Philip Morris International Inc. said Monday that it has increased its offer for Vectura Group PLC to 1.02 billion pounds ($1.42 billion), trumping Friday’s offer from Carlyle Europe Partners V for the U.K. pharmaceutical company. Under the new offer accepting shareholders of Vectura will get 165 pence a share in cash, up from Philip Morris’s previous offer of 150 pence a share and Carlyle’s offer of 155 pence Friday. On Friday, Vectura said that it had agreed a new GBP958 million takeover by Murano Bidco Ltd., a new company indirectly controlled by funds managed by Carlyle Europe Partners V, and withdrew its recommendation for Philip Morris’ proposal. At the time Vectura, which specializes in inhaled medicines, said the Carlyle bid offers better value to shareholders than Philip Morris’s and also puts the company in a better position to meet its current strategy.

The Swiss stock market ended Monday's trading with a strong gain. Thanks to significant gains by the two pharmaceutical heavyweights Roche (+2.6%) and Novartis (+1.4%), the SMI marked a new record high of 12,321 points in the course of the day. Traders pointed to the better-than-expected US labour market report on Friday as one of the reasons for the positive mood. In addition, there were surprisingly good export data from Germany. In addition, the US government's billion-dollar infrastructure package was about to be passed. The SMI improved 1.1 per cent to 12,311 points. Among the 20 SMI stocks, there were 16 gainers and four losers. 22.16 (previously: 29.82) million shares were traded.

European equity markets closed mixed on Monday as the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus weighed on oil prices. In addition, investors are questioning the policy of the US Federal Reserve (Fed) after the release of encouraging US employment figures on Friday. The Stoxx Europe 600 index rose 0.2% to 470.7 points, after gaining 1.8% last week. In Paris, the CAC 40 and the SBF 120 both lost 0.1%. In Frankfurt, the DAX 30 dropped 0.1% while the FTSE 100 in London gained 0.2%. Shares of the Covid-19 vaccine maker BioNTech took off early Monday after the company reported quarterly financial results that were far stronger than Wall Street expected. BioNTech (ticker: BNTX) said in a press release detailing its second-quarter earnings that it and its partner Pfizer (PFE) had shipped around a billion doses of their Covid-19 vaccine as of late July. It said the companies have signed orders for delivery of more than 2.2 billion doses this year, echoing an update Pfizer made late last month. eliveroo PLC said Monday that it received a notification late Friday that Berlin-based food-delivery services company Delivery Hero SE now owns 5.09% of its issued share capital. The London-listed company said that Delivery Hero owns 87.4 million of its shares. The shares are worth 284.1 million pounds ($394.1 million) based on Deliveroo’s closing share price of 325.10 pence Friday. Amazon.com Inc.-backed Deliveroo started conditional trading on the London Stock Exchange on March 31 at GBP3.90.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 retreated Monday as a tumble in oil prices signaled investor unease about the Covid-19 pandemic and the strength of the economic recovery. The Dow dropped 106.66 points, or 0.3%, to 35101.85. The broader S&P 500 slipped 4.17, or less than 0.1%, to 4432.35. The Nasdaq Composite rose 24.42, or 0.2%, to 14860.18. Stocks are hovering near records, with the Dow and the S&P 500 notching a high on Friday. The Nasdaq was also at a record last week. Sanderson Farms Inc. agreed to sell itself for around $4.5 billion as the poultry giant rides a wave of demand for chicken products. Cargill Inc. and agricultural-investment firm Continental Grain Co., which owns a smaller chicken processor, said Monday they reached a deal to take Sanderson private. The deal values Sanderson at $203 a share, about 30% above the stock price before The Wall Street Journal reported in June that the company had attracted interest from suitors including Continental. The Journal reported Sunday that the three were nearing a deal. Mississippi-based Sanderson is the country’s third-biggest chicken producer. It runs 13 poultry plants from North Carolina to Texas, processing about 13.6 million chickens a week. Car-rental company Hertz Global Holdings Inc. said it plans to relist on a major stock exchange by the end of 2021 as its quarterly revenue surged amid a travel rebound. For April through June, Hertz posted sales of $1.87 billion, growth of 62% compared with the first three months of the year. Sales remained significantly lower than pre-pandemic levels but marked a substantial recovery compared with last year’s spring quarter, when the pandemic brought much of leisure and business travel to a halt.

Stocks on the stock exchanges in East Asia and Australia are mostly stable on Tuesday. The indices are capped due to concerns about the spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus. In Japan, where there was no trading on Monday due to the holiday, the Nikkei-225 rose 0.1 per cent to 27,853 points. The index gain is driven by gains in pharmaceutical and financial stocks. Investors were betting on a further recovery in corporate earnings and a weakening of the yen, they said. Meanwhile, Japan's current account balance for June showed a much higher surplus than expected.

Treasury yields edged slightly lower in Asia after they climbed on Monday on data that showed record U.S. job openings for June, pointing to strength in the labor market, despite lingering concerns about the spread of the delta variant.

IR lowers the Lufthansa target to 9,20 (10,30) EUR – Sell
CS rises the Arcelor target to 34 (31) EUR – Neutral
UBS rises the ING target to 12,50 (12) EUR – Buy

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