Thyssenkrupp AG said Thursday that it had sold its stainless-steel mill in Italy, Acciai Speciali Terni, to steel producer Arvedi. The parties agreed not to disclose the purchase price, with the closing of the transaction expected in the first half of 2022, Thyssenkrupp said. The German steel maker said it is also examining a possible minority shareholding in the AST group, details of which will be negotiated up to the closing. The transaction is subject to approval by Thyssenkrupp's supervisory board and merger control clearance, it said. AST, which produces stainless steel flat products at a 1.5 million square meter site north of Rome generated sales of around 1.7 billion euros ($2.01 billion) in the 2020 fiscal year. The deal with Cremona-based Arvedi marks the fourth sale in Thyssenkrupp's Multi Tracks segment, which includes businesses of the company it has marked for disposal, as part of a widereaching restructuring strategy at the troubled company. Thyssenkrupp has recently sold its mining business to Danish firm FLSmidth & Co., its infrastructure business to FMC Beteiligungs KG and carbon components operations to Austrian company Action Composites GmbH.

Recovering from the previous day's losses, the Swiss stock market ended trading on Thursday. However, with the weak opening on Wall Street, the SMI gave up most of its gains in the afternoon. In contrast, the slight lowering of the Swiss government's economic forecast was not a major negative factor. This assumes a growth of the gross domestic product (GDP) of 3.2 percent for 2021 (forecast in June: 3.6). This would still mean that the Swiss economy would grow at a significantly above-average rate. In 2022, growth is then expected to accelerate to 3.4 per cent. The SMI improved by 0.4 per cent to 12,028 points. Among the 20 SMI stocks, there were 14 price gainers and six price losers. 29.79 (Wednesday: 39.16) million shares were traded. Luxury goods stocks, which had recently been hit hard, were again under pressure. Richemont shares fell by a further 1.1 per cent and Swatch shares lost 0.2 per cent. Sentiment for the sector remained depressed amid weak Chinese consumer spending, a trader said. Shares in logistics firm Kuehne & Nagel were up 1.4 per cent. Shipping company A.P. Moeller-Maersk raised its full-year forecast again as persistent supply chain bottlenecks led to higher freight rates. The world's largest container shipping company by capacity is now also more optimistic than before for the current third quarter.

European stock indices closed higher on Thursday, regaining some of the ground lost the previous day, while Wall Street retreated. The Stoxx Europe 600 index gained 0.4% to 466 points. In Paris, the CAC 40 and SBF 120 rose 0.6% and 0.5%, respectively. In Frankfurt, the DAX 30 gained 0.2%, as did the FTSE 100 in London. Ryanair Holdings PLC on Thursday raised its five-year growth forecast to 225 million passengers by March 2026. The Irish airline said it expects to deliver traffic growth of 50% from the pre-pandemic figure of 149 million passengers a year. This is up from the previous target of 33% and 200 million passengers a year by March 2026. Ryanair also said the performance of Boeing Co. ’s B737 aircraft this summer exceeded expectations and it will take delivery of 210 more over the next five years, subject to Covid-19 developments and vaccinations in Europe. Shares in French media group Lagardere SA surged Thursday after Vivendi SE struck a deal to increase its stake in the company, a move that opens the door to a full takeover. Vivendi, the conglomerate steered by the family of French billionaire Vincent Bollore, agreed to buy a 17.93% stake in Lagardere held by activist investor Amber Capital for about 609.86 million euros ($720.6 million). The deal would take Vivendi’s stake in the company to 45.1%, effectively forcing it to pursue a takeover of Lagardere.

U.S. stocks fell Thursday as investors weighed mixed signals in the latest U.S. economic data and a stock-market pullback in China. The S&P 500 dropped 6.95 points, or 0.2%, to 4473.75. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 63.07 points, or 0.2%, to 34751.32. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 20.39 points, or 0.1%, to 15181.92. In January, a former cop turned Facebook Inc. investigator posted an all-staff memo on the company’s internal message board. It began “Happy 2021 to everyone!!” and then proceeded to detail a new set of what he called “learnings.” The biggest one: A Mexican drug cartel was using Facebook to recruit, train and pay hit men. The behavior was shocking and in clear violation of Facebook’s rules. But the company didn’t stop the cartel from posting on Facebook or Instagram, the company’s photo-sharing site. Scores of internal Facebook documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show employees raising alarms about how its platforms are used in some developing countries, where its user base is already huge and expanding. They also show the company’s response, which in many instances is inadequate or nothing at all. Elon Musk’s SpaceX on Wednesday evening launched four civilians toward the deepest orbit Americans have traveled to in more than a decade, in another milestone flight for private space travel. A Falcon 9 rocket with a Crew Dragon space capsule on top lifted off with a fiery plume from a pad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida just after 8 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, according to a live stream of the takeoff. About 12 minutes after launch, the capsule carrying members of the Inspiration4 mission—a billionaire businessman, a geoscientist, a physician assistant and an aerospace engineer—separated from a booster. Then, the capsule began traveling to an orbit about 360 miles above Earth.

At the end of the week, no uniform trend can be discerned on the stock markets in East Asia and Australia. According to participants, in many places economic concerns are preventing a recovery from the recent price losses. Contributing to the caution in Asia is the fact that many stock exchanges in the region are facing a long holiday weekend. In Japan there will be no trading on Monday and Thursday, in Shanghai the stock exchange will be closed on Monday and Tuesday, in Hong Kong on Wednesday. In South Korea, trading is suspended from Monday to Wednesday. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index gains 0.5 per cent.

Treasury yields rose to 1.337% from 1.302% Wednesday as August retail sales rose. Inflation concerns remain one of the forces driving investors away from US government debt, according to some economists, amid high expectations of taper discussion in the Fed's meeting next week.

IR lowers the DWS target to 39 (43) EUR – Buy
Dt. Bank lowers the Eni target to 12,80 (13,70) EUR – Buy
Dt. Bank lowers Unilever to Hold (Buy) – Target 4.600 (4.800) p

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