A U.S. congressional committee is asking the Justice Department to investigate Amazon.com Inc. and some of its executives for what lawmakers say is potentially criminal obstruction of Congress, according to people familiar with the matter and a letter containing the request. The letter, dated March 9 and viewed by The Wall Street Journal, was sent to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland by Democratic and Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee. The letter accuses the Seattle-based tech giant of refusing to provide information that lawmakers sought as part of an investigation by the body’s Antitrust Subcommittee into Amazon’s competitive practices. The letter alleges that the refusal was an attempt to cover up what it calls a lie that the company told lawmakers about its treatment of outside sellers on its platform. An Amazon spokeswoman said, “There’s no factual basis for this, as demonstrated in the huge volume of information we’ve provided over several years of good-faith cooperation with this investigation.” In the past, Amazon has denied that the company or its executives misled the committee and has said that internal policy prohibits using individual seller data to develop Amazon products.

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Hopes for a solution to the Ukraine war drove the Swiss stock market significantly upwards on Wednesday. The SMI gained 3.9 per cent to 11,493 points. Of the 20 SMI stocks, 18 posted price gains. The only loser was Geberit (-1.8 per cent), after the business figures of the sanitary products manufacturer did not convince in all points. Swisscom, a defensive stock, closed unchanged. 74.9 (previously: 84.93) million shares were traded. The share of the luxury goods company Richemont benefited particularly from the latest news on the Ukraine war; it shot up by 12.6 per cent. Russia is an important sales market for the company. Financial stocks also recorded significant price gains, which received additional tailwind from rising market interest rates. The shares of the two banks Credit Suisse and UBS improved by 7.1 and 5.7 per cent respectively. The share prices of insurers Swiss Life, Swiss Re and Zurich advanced between 3.8 and 4.8 per cent. Nestle (+4.4%) and Givaudan (+2.2%) recovered from the previous day's sell-off.

Europe's main equity indices rebounded sharply on Wednesday as investors suddenly regained their appetite for risk after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared ready to make concessions on his country's membership of Nato and the future of the pro-Russian territories. The Stoxx Europe 600 index gained 4.7% to 434.5 points. In Paris, the CAC 40 and the SBF 120 rebounded by 7.1% each. In Frankfurt, the DAX 40 soared 7.9%, while in London, the FTSE 100 gained 3.3%. The Moscow Stock Exchange's equity markets remained closed on Wednesday. UniCredit SpA gave details late Tuesday of its exposure to Russia and the maximum hit its capital could suffer in a worst-case scenario, and signaled that its buyback plans could be affected by this. The Italian lender outlined exposure to Russia totaling around 7.4 billion euros ($8.06 billion). In an extreme scenario where the entirety of this maximum exposure became nonrecoverable, the negative impact to its common equity Tier 1 ratio at the end of 2021 would amount to about 2 percentage points, UniCredit said. Its CET1 ratio--a measure of capital strength--stood at 15.03% at the end of 2021. Adidas AG said Wednesday that it expects strong revenue growth in 2022 despite fourth-quarter sales and earnings falling as a result of weak performance in the key China market. The German sporting-goods company’s fourth-quarter sales fell 3% at constant currency to 5.14 billion euros ($5.60 billion) as Greater China revenue declined by 24% organically. This led to a drop in operating profit to EUR66 million from EUR225 million in the same quarter the previous year, with the operating margin falling to 1.3%, Adidas said.

U.S. stocks jumped, extending a volatile spell as investors track the economic fallout of the war in Ukraine. The S&P 500 rose 2.6%, while the technology-focused Nasdaq Composite Index added 3.6%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 2%. All three indexes broke a four-session losing streak. The war in Ukraine has fueled big moves in stocks, commodities, currencies and bonds. For investors, analyzing the direction of the conflict, fast-changing Western sanctions on Russia and their effects on the global economy is challenging. "The market sentiment and the daily movement, and even the intraday movement, certainly has been whipsawed by the headlines surrounding the conflict in Ukraine," said David Sekera, Morningstar's chief U.S. market strategist. Campbell Soup Co. posted lower quarterly sales as labor and supply constraints weighed on operations and profitability. The company behind namesake soups and snacking products like Goldfish crackers and SpaghettiOs on Wednesday posted $2.21 billion in sales for its fiscal second quarter ended Jan. 30, down 3% from a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by FactSet were expecting $2.24 billion. Pfizer Inc. has begun studying its Covid-19 pill in children under 18 years old who are at high risk of developing severe disease. The study will evaluate whether the five-day treatment Paxlovid, which is in use among people 12 years and older, can also keep children who are newly infected by the coronavirus out of the hospital, Pfizer said Wednesday. Pfizer Inc. has begun studying its Covid-19 pill in children under 18 years old who are at high risk of developing severe disease.

As already seen on the European stock markets and on Wall Street, there is also a pronounced recovery movement on the East Asian stock markets and in Sydney on Thursday after the seen massive losses of the past days. In Tokyo, the Nikkei index shot up by 3.9 per cent to 25,681 points. The recovery in the other markets was much less pronounced.

Treasury yields were holding around Wednesday's closing levels as investors continued to hold out some hope that a resolution of hostilities in Ukraine could soon be achieved. Investors sold bonds Wednesday ahead of the European Central Bank's policy decision later Thursday and the Federal Reserve's likely decision to lift benchmark interest rates next week.

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