Oracle Corp. is in talks to buy electronic-medical-records company Cerner Corp., according to people familiar with the matter, a deal that could be worth around $30 billion and push the enterprise-software giant further into healthcare. An agreement could be finalized soon, some of the people said, assuming the talks don't fall apart or drag out. Should a deal come together, it would rank as the biggest ever for Oracle, which has a market value of more than $280 billion. Kansas City, Mo.-based Cerner designs software that hospitals and doctors use to store and analyze medical records and other healthcare data. It has a market value of around $23 billion. With a typical takeover premium, a deal would be expected to value the company at something like $30 billion, though exact terms being discussed couldn't be learned. Oracle, a Silicon Valley veteran that last year moved its headquarters to Austin, Texas, is one of the biggest software providers to other companies and organizations.

Swiss equities went down on Friday. Thursday's recovery, which took the SMI to new record highs, proved to be a brief interlude. The SMI lost 0.6 per cent to 12,715 points. Among the 20 SMI stocks, there were 14 price losers and six price gainers. 80.99 (previously: 42.2) million shares were traded. SMI heavyweight Nestle (+0.2) bucked the negative trend. Novartis held up even better, gaining 0.6 per cent after its share price jumped on Thursday with the announcement of a share buyback. Logitech shares also managed a small gain of 0.1 per cent after US technology stocks, which had sold off the previous day, stabilised. Richemont was the biggest loser, down 4.0 per cent. The luxury goods group is suffering from the pandemic-related restrictions on tourism. The shares of the banks Credit Suisse and UBS fell by 2.1 and 2.4 per cent. The previous day they had benefited from the announced monetary policy tightening by the US Federal Reserve.

European equity markets fell mostly on Friday, weighed down by the tightening of monetary policy initiated by many central banks in the face of inflation, while investors are concerned about the risks to growth linked to the Omicron variant. The Stoxx Europe 600 index lost 0.6% to 473.9 points. For the week as a whole, the Stoxx Europe 600 index lost 0.4%. In Paris, the CAC 40 and the SBF 120 lost 1.1% and 1% respectively on Friday. In Frankfurt, the DAX 40 fell by 0.7%, while the FTSE 100 in London rose by 0.1%. The U.S. Supreme Court’s request this week for the Biden administration to offer its views on a case about the alleged health risks of the Roundup weedkiller was an encouraging step, the head of Bayer AG told The Wall Street Journal. The court’s move meant it has shown interest in the case and the company would continue its strategy to limit Roundup litigation risks, Werner Baumann, Bayer’s chief executive, told the Journal. The company said it would now suspend discussions over settling further Roundup disputes as the court considers whether to take on Bayer’s petition to toss out a previous verdict on Roundup. HSBC Holdings PLC was fined for inadequate anti-money-laundering controls that the London-based bank used to monitor hundreds of millions of dollars of transactions. The U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority fined HSBC £63.9 million, the equivalent of $85 million, for weak oversight at the bank between 2010 and 2018. HSBC didn’t dispute the regulator’s findings, which meant it got a 30% discount on the fine, the FCA said in a statement. “HSBC’s transaction monitoring systems were not effective for a prolonged period despite the issue being highlighted on numerous occasions,” said Mark Steward, the FCA’s executive director of enforcement and market oversight

Stocks turned in a weak session on Friday as investors assessed the potential impact of policy shifts by the world's largest central banks on inflation and growth. The S&P 500 fell 1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average weakened 1.5% and the Nasdaq Composite Index pared earlier losses and finished the day down about 0.1%. Markets have been dragged down toward the end of last week by concerns about the possibility of higher interest rates in the future. Shortly after the Federal Reserve announced Wednesday its plan to speed up the tapering of its pandemic-era stimulus measures and possibly raise interest-rate increases next year, equities had rallied. "People are scratching their heads and wondering 'Wow, was the post-Fed meeting reality just a complete head fake?'," said Jordan Kahn, chief investment officer of ACM Funds. The brokerage arm of JPMorgan Chase & Co. on Friday agreed to pay $200 million in fines and admit that it failed to keep track of employees’ use of personal messaging apps that circumvented record-keeping requirements. The Securities and Exchange Commission said its fine, $125 million, is the largest ever for a breach of rules requiring brokerages to retain most communications so the data can be monitored internally and made available to regulators. The SEC said the breakdown was widespread and hindered some enforcement investigations, which often make use of what individuals write in emails and other messaging channels. FedEx Corp. is inching toward its goal of decarbonizing the last mile of the delivery process. On Friday, the logistics giant said it had received the first five all-electric vans from General Motors Co. -owned BrightDrop in Los Angeles. FedEx became BrightDrop’s first big customer in January, ordering 500 of BrightDrop’s EV600 commercial vans.

Risk aversion is the order of the day to start the new week in East Asia and Australia. The Nikkei index in Tokyo loses 2.1 per cent to 27,943 points, Seoul is down 1.6 per cent and Hong Kong 1.1 per cent. Shanghai (-0.5 per cent) holds up a tad better.

Alternative credit assets like asset-backed securities and collaterised loan obligations look appealing, said Chris Iggo, chief investment officer for core investments at AXA Investment Managers.

UBS lowers the Signify target to EUR 44 (55) – Neutral
UBS lowers the Holcim target to CHF 59 (60) – Buy
CS lowers the Covestro target to EUR 58 (68) – Neutral

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