Elon Musk is seeking to terminate his $44 billion agreement to buy Twitter Inc., saying that the company hasn't provided the necessary data and information he needs to assess the prevalence of fake or spam accounts, according to a regulatory filing. Twitter "is in material breach of multiple provisions of that agreement" and appears to have made "false and misleading representations" when entering into the agreement, according to a letter from Mr. Musk's lawyer filed with securities regulators. The filing caps nearly two months of high-stakes suspense over Mr. Musk's intentions, while setting up a possible legal battle over what comes next for the social-media platform. Bret Taylor, chairman of Twitter's board of directors, tweeted Friday afternoon that the board plans to pursue legal action to enforce the deal at the price and terms originally agreed upon. "We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery," Mr. Taylor tweeted. Parag Agrawal, Twitter's chief executive, retweeted the message.

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The Swiss stock market rose for the third day in a row at the end of the week. The SMI gained 0.7 percent to 11,015 points. Relief for Swiss exporters came from the currency side. After its bout of weakness well below parity against the franc, the euro recovered more clearly. With economic confidence, cyclical stocks were favored. Among the bigger winners were also bank stocks, which additionally benefited from the expectation of a further rise in interest rates, which promises better margins, for example in the lending business. At the end ranked accordingly shares of less cyclical companies such as Givaudan (-1.2%), Roche (-0.9%) or Nestle (+0.2%). Holcim showed behind Logitech (+3.7%) with 3.6 percent the largest daily increase. The company had announced another acquisition after one in Belgium two days ago. In Romania, General Beton Romania with estimated annual sales of around 45 million euros will be acquired. There was no information on the purchase price.

European shares ended higher on Friday after better than expected US employment figures and comments from Atlanta Federal Reserve President Raphael Bostic. Bostic said the US central bank could raise rates by 75 basis points at its next meeting later this month. The Stoxx Europe 600 ended up 0.5% at 417.12 points. For the week as a whole, the pan-European index gained 2.45%. In Paris, the CAC 40 and SBF 120 gained 0.4% and 0.6% respectively on Friday. In Frankfurt, the DAX 40 advanced by 1.3%, while in London, the FTSE 100 gained 0.1%. Finnish energy group Fortum Oyj said Friday that its Uniper SE subsidiary has filed for government support under newly adopted German energy legislation. Uniper is Germany's biggest importer of gas and has been hit hardest by the Russian gas curtailment, resulting in extreme financial pressure, Fortum said. Since mid-June, Uniper has received only 40% of the contracted gas volumes from Russia and has had to source the replacement volumes in the market at significantly higher prices. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines said it would cut as many as about 2,000 flights from its schedule to help ease congestion at its main airport, the latest move by a European airline to rightsize summer operations amid an industrywide labor shortfall. The airline said Friday it would scrap between 10 and 20 return flights a day through Aug. 28, representing at least about 1,000 trips over the next two months. KLM is also restricting ticket sales for its remaining available seats on flights to European destinations to free up space for customers needing to be rebooked because of the disruption.

The S&P 500 inched lower, avoiding a fifth consecutive session of gains after the latest monthly jobs report beat expectations. The week has been marked by some sharp intraday swings, but for the most part investors have gotten a respite from the heavy selling across markets that has dominated for much of the year. The S&P 500 rose 1.9% this week, while the Dow has added about 0.8%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq has jumped 4.6%. Some investors have jumped back into the market, looking for bargains after a stretch of volatility has dragged the S&P 500 down 18% for the year. And many investors returned to a familiar trade in recent sessions: Buying shares of tech companies. The S&P 500's technology and communication services groups have been among the biggest winners. Shares of Tesla and chip makers such as Micron Technology and Qualcomm were among the best performers in the S&P 500 for the week. The ARK Innovation ETF has soared almost 14%. Meanwhile, shares of energy companies, which had been the star performers this year, have lagged behind. The Labor Department's June jobs report showed that rising interest rates and high inflation are so far not affecting hiring, which remains strong. The U.S. economy added 372,000 jobs in June, well above the 250,000 expected by economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal. GameStop sank 4.9% after the retailer also said it was cutting staff and terminated its finance chief.

Political stock market and price gains in Japan and rekindled Corona worries and heavy losses in China – the stock market landscape in Asia is divided on Monday. In Japan, the ruling coalition has consolidated its position in the upper house elections, which goes down well on the stock market because it speaks for stability and continuity, especially after the assassination attempt on former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during the election campaign. The Nikkei index gains 1.3 per cent to 26,853 points. The Chinese stock markets are quite different: Shanghai is down 1.5 per cent and Hong Kong is down as much as 2.7 per cent after new covid 19 outbreaks were reported from several Chinese cities. This will again affect economic activity and also the mood on the financial markets in the short term, comment analysts at KGI Securities.

The yield on the U.S. benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose after the monthly jobs report to trade at 3.098%, notching its biggest one-week yield gain in around a month.

UBS downgrades Poste Italiane to Neutral (Buy) – Target EUR 8.70 (13)

JP Morgan raises target on Scout24 to EUR 72 (67) ¬– Overweight

Société Générale lowers Siemens target to EUR145 (180) – Buy

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