LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE said that sales rose strongly in the first quarter, despite headwinds from pandemic-related lockdowns in China. The French luxury-goods major made quarterly revenue of 18 billion euros ($19.59 billion), 23% higher on year at constant currency. The group had been expected to post revenue of EUR17.03 billion, according to a poll of analysts’ estimates compiled by FactSet. The core fashion and leather-goods division, which houses brands Dior and Louis Vuitton, posted the strongest organic growth of 30% to EUR9.12 billion. All other divisions also grew on year, with the wines and spirits business seeing the slowest growth at 2%, amid supply constraints, LVMH said. Revenue grew at double digits in the U.S. and Europe, and Asian revenue also increased despite the impact of tightening sanitary restrictions in China in March, the company said.

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The Swiss stock market exited trading on Tuesday with losses. The SMI lost 1.2 per cent to 12,379 points. Among the 20 SMI stocks, there were 16 price losers and four price winners. 38.16 (previously: 38.49) million shares were traded. Selling were the shares of banks and insurers, which were sought after on Monday, after US market interest rates fell significantly again. Credit Suisse slipped 2.0 per cent. At UBS (-3.5%), the dividend discount of 0.25 francs also weighed on the share price. Swiss Life, Swiss Re and Zurich posted losses of between 0.1 and 1.1 per cent. Investors also parted with defensive stocks. Nestle lost 1.0 per cent, Novartis 1.3 per cent and Roche 2.8 per cent. Shares in Givaudan (-2.8 per cent) could not escape the negative sentiment, although the fragrance and flavours manufacturer published convincing business figures. In contrast, the sales figures of Sika (+0.6%) were positively received.

European stock indices closed lower on Tuesday, still weighed down by fears of tighter monetary policies and a slowdown in the global economy. The Stoxx Europe 600 index fell 0.35% to 456.7 points. In Paris, the CAC 40 and the SBF 120 lost 0.28% and 0.27% respectively. In Frankfurt, the DAX 40 was down 0.48% and in London, the FTSE 100 was down 0.55%. U.S. investment firm Capital Group Cos. simultaneously sold major stakes in Deutsche Bank AG and Commerzbank AG , Germany’s biggest lenders, causing shares in both to tumble. Capital Group unloaded roughly 5% stakes in both banks, according to people familiar with the sale, generating proceeds of around €1.75 billion, equivalent to $1.9 billion. Morgan Stanley arranged the sales. The shares were offered at around 7% discounts to their previous trading levels. easyJet said Tuesday that it expects summer flight capacity to near prepandemic levels this year, and that it has recovered well since the U.K. government said in January that it was removing pandemic travel restrictions. The budget carrier said summer bookings for the past six weeks have tracked ahead of the same period of fiscal 2019, with customers booking closer to departure. Its summer plans to reach capacity of near 2019’s levels are unchanged and it has a positive outlook for Easter, easyJet said.

U.S. stocks indexes gave up their early gains as investors pondered how the Federal Reserve will act to tame inflation, which rose at the fastest annual pace in four decades in March. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 0.3%, while the S&P 500 and the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index also both lost roughly 0.3%. That was a retreat from a morning that initially featured bullish trading, with the S&P at one point up 1.3% on the day. Labor Department data showed that inflation continued at an unsparing rate in March. The consumer-price index rose 8.5% last month from a year before. Fed governor Lael Brainard reiterated the Fed's readiness to take an aggressive stance against inflation. "Inflation is too high," Brainard said in remarks at a Wall Street Journal summit. "Getting inflation down is going to be our most important task." Boeing Co. said its long-term orders for new commercial jets are expected to shrink due to sanctions targeting Russia after the country’s invasion of Ukraine. The American aerospace giant has orders for more than 4,200 commercial jets waiting to be fulfilled. But the company said Tuesday U.S. sanctions targeting Russia led it to determine it won’t be able to deliver some of those jets to airlines or other customers in the country. Boeing said it could no longer count about 90 of its outstanding orders for commercial jets as firm purchase agreements, or about 2% of its overall backlog, under accounting rules. In all, Boeing counted 141 net orders as no longer firm in March. General Motors Co. has struck a multiyear agreement to source cobalt from commodities firm Glencore PLC, the latest in the auto industry’s rush to secure key battery ingredients for electric vehicles as raw materials prices rise. GM said Tuesday the company will supply it with cobalt, a critical metal used in the production of batteries, from Glencore’s operation in Australia.

In a countermovement, the East Asian stock exchanges mostly move upwards on Wednesday. In Japan, stock prices are recovering from the previous day's losses, supported also by the recent weakness of the yen. Core machinery orders in February came in better than expected. The Nikkei rose by 1.8 per cent to 26,807 points. Financials, however, are trending lower as US yields fell overnight.

Two- and 10-year U.S. Treasury yields had their biggest declines in weeks on Tuesday as investors focused on details of March's consumer price index report that suggest U.S. inflation may have peaked. Early Wednesday, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note was spotted at 2.740% from 2.724% Tuesday.

JP Morgan cuts Rolls-Royce to Underweight (Neutral) – 75 (140) p

CS raises Societe Generale to EUR38 (36) – Outperform

UBS raises ING target to EUR 15.30 (14.40) – Buy

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