Sarah Youngwood will join UBS's Group Executive Board at the beginning of March and take over as Group Chief Financial Officer in May, following current CFO Kirt Gardner's decision to step down from his role. Sarah Youngwood has been Chief Financial Officer of JPMorgan Chase's Consumer & Community Banking line of business since 2016. Since 2020, her role has also included leading finance for the firm's global technology unit, as well as the diversity & inclusion team. Between 2012 and 2016, she served as Head of Investor Relations for JPMorgan Chase and, prior to that, spent 14 years in various roles in the Financial Institutions Group within JPM's Investment Bank in Paris, London and New York.

The SMI lost 0.5 percent to 12,160 points. Among the 20 SMI stocks, there were a total of 13 price losers and 7 winners. 95.93 (previously: 38.21) million shares were traded. Dufry shed 3.2 percent. The duty-free store operator is likely to suffer heavily from far-reaching travel restrictions. Already, numerous countries have restricted air travel with South Africa. The heavily weighted pharmaceutical stocks showed a mixed picture. While Roche shares were up 0.6 percent, Novartis lost 1.1 percent. Under pressure were cyclically sensitive stocks such as ABB (-0.2%), Holcim (-2.3%), Swatch (-0.7%) and Richemont (-1.6%).

European stocks fell more than 1% Tuesday, as downbeat comments on coronavirus variants from vaccine manufacturer Moderna unsettled investors. Oil- and travel-related stocks were among the biggest fallers. The Stoxx Europe 600 index fell 0.9% to 463.0 points. In Paris, the CAC 40 and SBF 120 were down 0.8% each. In Frankfurt, the DAX 40 gave up 1.2% while the FTSE 100 in London lost 0.4%. The prospect of further cuts before Christmas, coupled with inflation fears, weighed on a range of consumer-related stocks. Danone dropped 4.3%, Carrefour lost 3.6% and shopping center operator Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield fell 3%. In London, Unilever lost 1.6%. Air France-KLM (-2.9%) risks being forced to carry out a more dilutive financial restructuring for its shareholders, following the appearance of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, according to HSBC, which has lowered its recommendation on the stock from "keep" to "reduce" and its target price from 4 to 3.1 euros. Schneider Electric (+3.3%) was the biggest riser on the CAC 40 after unveiling "ambitious" medium-term growth targets, according to Berenberg. Inditex (-6.1% in Madrid) announced that Marta Ortega Perez, the daughter of the founder of the Spanish ready-to-wear group, will succeed Pablo Isla Alvarez, executive chairman since 2011, who will step down from his post on March 31, 2022.

A post-Thanksgiving retreat in global stock indexes and energy prices intensified Tuesday, reflecting jitters over the impact of a new Covid-19 variant and rising inflation. Nearly all the stocks in the S&P 500 fell as investors pulled away from riskier assets and sought haven in government bonds. The financial, communications, industrials, consumer staples and material sectors all declined more than 2%, and all 11 sectors in the index slid at least 1%. Stocks dropped after the opening bell Tuesday, and the declines accelerated after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank would consider speeding up the wind-down of its easy-money policies in an effort to curtail inflation. In response, investors sold shares deemed most apt to be affected by inflation, such as banks and rapidly growing companies, as well as those that have been hit by supply-chain issues, like manufacturers and miners. The S&P 500 fell 1.9%, or 88.27 points, to 4567. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also fell 1.9%, or 652.22 points, to 34483.72. The Nasdaq Composite, laden with technology stocks known for their growth, fell 1.6%, or 245.14 points, to 15537.69. Bank of America lost 2.5% while JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs fell 1.5% as the flattening yield curve could lead to lower interest margins for banks. Preliminary tests indicate that Regeneron Pharmaceuticals' Covid-19 antibody cocktail (-2.7%) is losing effectiveness against the Omicron variant, the group announced Tuesday. Separate tests of another approved antibody-based treatment for Covid-19, Eli Lilly's (-2.8%), indicate that it also does not perform as well in treating the Omicron variant, independent scientists said. The transportation and tourism sector was again under pressure. Carnival fell 3% while Expedia gave up 3.2%. Airlines held up better, with United Airlines losing 0.7% while Delta gave up 0.1%. Cloud software provider HashiCorp announced Monday that it expects to be valued at up to $13 billion in its U.S. initial public offering (IPO). The San Francisco-based company is scheduled to price its IPO on Dec. 8 and its listing is set to begin the next day, a person close to the matter told The Wall Street Journal. Brazilian fintech Nubank has lowered its price range for its highly anticipated IPO on the New York and Sao Paolo stock exchanges next week, now targeting a valuation of about $41.5 billion. The online bank said it plans to sell 289 million shares at a price between $8 and $9, down from a range of $10 to $11, according to its new prospectus.

In Asia, major indexes broadly closed with gains. The previous day's weakest stock markets in Hong Kong (+1.2%), Seoul (+2.2%) and Tokyo (+0.5%) lead the field of winners. The recovery in South Korea is particularly strong - driven by the automotive, chemical and steel sectors.

Long-dated U.S. government debt yields slipped on Wednesday. Before the emergence of the new variant, the 10-year yield had been creeping higher but was still low by pre-pandemic standards, indicating concerns among investors about the longer-term growth outlook and the potential for tighter monetary policy to slow the economy. The 10-year U.S. Treasury rate fell 8 basis points to 1.449% from 1.500% on Monday night. The two-year Treasury yield, on the other hand, rose 3 basis points to 0.524%. The yield on the 10-year German Bund recovered to -0.347%, from -0.316% Monday night. The 10-year Japanese government bond yield rose one basis point to 0.065%.

JP Morgan raises Beiersdorf target to EUR 105 (101) - Neutral
Metzler lowers Vonovia goal to EUR 53 (57) - Hold
Berenberg increases Aegon target to EUR 6 (5.40) - Buy

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