According to a media report, Credit Suisse has accepted autocrats, drug dealers and suspected war criminals as clients for years. According to research by the "Sueddeutsche Zeitung", this is documented by data from the financial institution, which the paper claims was leaked to it by an anonymous source. The "SZ" evaluated the documents together with several international media partners, including "Guardian", "Le Monde" and "New York Times". In a statement, Credit Suisse firmly rejects the accusations and insinuations about "alleged business practices of the bank" reported by the research network under the title "Suisse Secrets." It said the facts presented were largely historical and, in some cases, dated back to the 1940s. They were based on incomplete or selective information that had been taken out of context. For legal reasons, Credit Suisse could not comment on potential client relationships. The bank takes the allegation very seriously and will continue the investigations with an internal task force including specialized external experts.

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The Swiss stock market put up a brave fight on Friday. Although new bad news from Ukraine caused further losses, they were much more moderate in Switzerland than on the other European stock exchanges. This was due to the defensive character of the SMI heavyweights, which performed better than the broad market. For supposed security was once again the trump card, as underlined by the rise of the franc against the euro. The SMI lost 0.5 per cent to 12,010 points. Among the 20 SMI stocks, there were 18 price losers and two price winners. 39.82 (previously: 37.1) million shares were traded. The SMI was supported by Nestle, which gained 0.7 per cent. After the previous day's figures, several analysts were positive about the business figures of the food giant. Swisscom (+0.7%) was another defensive stock at the top of the SMI. The defensive pharmaceutical heavyweight Novartis (-0.2%) demonstrated relative strength.

The European equity indices ended in the red on Friday, at the end of a session marked by a new escalation of tensions between Russia and Ukraine and by a busy corporate news. The Stoxx Europe 600 index lost 0.8% to 460.8 points. In Paris, the CAC 40 and SBF 120 were down 0.3% and 0.4% respectively. In Frankfurt, the DAX 40 lost 1.5%, while the FTSE 100 in London fell by 0.3%. Allianz SE set aside more than $4 billion for legal expenses stemming from losses its investment funds racked up during the March 2020 market panic when their options trades went bad. The German financial giant said Friday that it had reached settlements with major investors in those funds. It booked €3.7 billion in legal provisions, equivalent to $4.2 billion, in its 2021 results. As a result, Allianz’s net income fell 2.6% to €6.6 billion. The fund losses have drawn probes from the U.S. Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission as well as several lawsuits from the funds’ investors. Eni SpA said Friday that it swung to a profit in the fourth quarter of last year on soaring oil-and-gas prices, and backed its dividend proposal. The Italian oil-and-gas major booked a quarterly net profit of 3.82 billion euros ($4.34 billion) compared with a loss of EUR797 million for the year-earlier period. On an adjusted basis, net profit rose to EUR2.11 billion, due to strengthening market trends and production growth.

U.S stock-index futures bounced back from early-session losses Sunday, amid even more urgent warnings from U.S. officials that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could come soon. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures, S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq-100 futures fell sharply to start Sunday's trading session, but quickly recovered and entered positive territory. U.S. stocks posted weekly losses Friday as the threat of an invasion of Ukraine and the uncertain path of monetary policy weighed on market sentiment. Investors tracked headlines on the Ukraine situation throughout the week. U.S. officials warned they expect a Russian attack on Ukraine in the next few days and said prospects for averting war appear dim. On Friday, the S&P 500 fell 31.39 points, or 0.7%, to 4348.87. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 232.85 points, or 0.7%, to 34079.18. The Nasdaq Composite declined 168.65 points, or 1.2%, to 13548.07. The S&P 500 fell 1.6% for the week, bringing its losses this year to 8.8%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.9% for the week, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite retreated 1.8%. American Airlines Group Inc. said it is further trimming its summer flying schedule due to Boeing Co. ’s continuing delays in delivering new 787 Dreamliners. American, the world’s largest carrier by passenger traffic, is planning to temporarily suspend routes including those between Seattle and London, Los Angeles and Sydney, and Dallas and Santiago, Chile, according to a securities filing Friday. Roku Inc. shares fell 22% Friday after the streaming-service provider said supply-chain disruptions weighed on its fourth-quarter results and are expected to continue in 2022. The company, which sells smart televisions with built-in streaming technology, as well as devices that users can plug into TVs, had previously said global supply-chain issues were affecting new TV sales.

At the beginning of the week, the East Asian stock markets were mostly slightly lower, but recovered significantly from the day's lows. Hopes for a possible solution to the Russia-Ukraine conflict are causing prices to recover. With the news, the indices in Asia recover strongly from their daily lows, but miss the jump into positive territory. The Nikkei-225 in Tokyo lost 0.8 per cent, after being down almost two per cent.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was unchanged at 1.928% early Monday. The Ukraine situation "remains fragile and still has the potential to trigger major market moves at any time," wrote analysts in a note.

UBS raises Kering target to EUR 855 (854) – Buy

CS cuts Standard Chartered target by 3% to 485 p – Underperform

Citi raises the Commerzbank target to EUR 10.50 (9) – Buy

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