Elon Musk kicked off his ownership of Twitter Inc. with trademark gusto, firing top executives, tweeting jests about the company and saying he would form a special council to tackle the thorny issue of content moderation that has long been a challenge for the social-media platform. Mr. Musk’s $44 billion takeover, more than six months in the making, launches a new period of tumult for one of the world’s most influential platforms as he works to remake business and content practices that he has repeatedly criticized. The acquisition teed up a host of questions that could take months or years to answer about how Twitter will change in the hands of the world’s richest man, who has business interests in autos, rockets and other sectors stretching across the globe and who is one of the platform’s most prominent - and sometimes most provocative - users. Former President Donald Trump - permanently banned by Twitter on Jan. 8, 2021, in connection with the U.S. Capitol riot over tweets that company executives viewed as likely to inspire violence - said, “I am very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands.” General Motors Co. said Friday it is pausing its paid advertising on Twitter in the wake of Mr. Musk’s acquisition, saying it wants more information about the site’s direction under its new ownership.

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On Friday, the SMI gained 0.6 per cent to 10,772 points. Among the 20 SMI stocks, there were ten price losers and nine price winners with one share closing unchanged. 46.08 (previously: 79.97) million shares were traded. The financial results for the third quarter of the Swiss building materials manufacturer Holcim (+4%) were received favourably. EBIT for the period was 4 per cent above market expectations. The unexpected share buyback programme had a supporting effect. Swiss Re fell by 2.4 per cent after third-quarter figures. Heavy losses of 3.7 per cent were recorded by Richemont. Here, the renewed tightening of movement and contact restrictions in China are likely to have had a negative impact, China being an important sales market for Richemont. Swatch, meanwhile, fell by 1.2 per cent. The Swiss market was supported by gains in pharmaceutical stocks Novartis (+1.8%) and Roche (+1.9%). Nestle added 0.4 per cent. Credit Suisse, which had been heavily penalised the previous day, recovered by 1.3 per cent. Swisscom (+1.3%) continued to benefit from positive financial results published on Thursday.

The pan European Stoxx 600 edged up 0.14% on Friday. Germany's DAX gained 0.24% and France's CAC 40 ended 0.46% up, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 ended 0.37% down. In the UK market, Airtel Africa rallied nearly 6%. Centrica surged 5.1%. GSK, CRH, AstraZeneca, Reckitt Benckiser, Unilever, SSE, Vodafone Group, Rentokil Initial and BAE Systems gained 1 to 2.2%. Natwest Group shares plunged more than 9% as the high street lender missed estimates for profit in the third quarter amid increased impairment provisions. IAG ended more than 2% down despite the company's revenue exceeding pre-pandmic levels. Harbour Energy, Ocado Group, JD Sports Fashion, Rio Tinto, M&G, Lloyds Banking Group, ICP, Anglo American Plc, Endeavour Mining and Standard Chartered are down 3 to 5.1%. In Paris, Airbus Group gained 4%. Safran gained more than 3% after the jet engine maker and aerospace supplier raised its 2022 revenue and cashflow targets. Danone moved up more than 2% after raising its 2022 revenue growth forecast. Carrefour, Thales, Schneider Electric, Air Liquide, Michelin, Orange and Vinci gained 1 to 2%. Air France-KLM plunged more than 13% after the airline lowered its full-year capacity guidance. Atos, Valeo, ArcelorMittal, STMicroElectronics, Vivendi, Hermes International, Kering, Renault and Societe Generale ended lower by 1.5 to 4%. In the German market, MTU Aero Engines and Deutsche Telekom gained about 4% and 3.4%, respectively. Linde, Bayer, Henkel and Sartorius also ended notably higher. Fresenius Medical Care tumbled nearly 9%. HelloFresh, Vonovia, Zalando, Deutsche Wohnen and Fresenius lost 3 to 5.1%. Deutsche Post, Volkswagen, Covestro, BASF and Continental also ended notably lower. In economic releases, economic sentiment in the eurozone deteriorated again in October, weighed by high inflation and a darkening outlook for the economy, the European Commission said. French Consumer price inflation rose to 6.2% in October from 5.6% in September while economists had forecast inflation to increase slightly to 5.7%. This was the strongest inflation since 1985.

U.S. stocks rose Friday, with big gains by Apple helping offset declines among consumer discretionary stocks weighed down by a sales warning from e-commerce giant Amazon. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index rose 309.78 points, or 2.9%, to 11102.45, bouncing back after two days of declines. The S&P 500 added 93.76 points, or 2.5%, to 3901.06 while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 828.52 points, or 2.6%, to 32861.80. All three indexes finished the week with gains, with the Dow industrials’ recent run-up putting it down less than 10% year-to-date. This week’s gains are a testament to how the group of companies known as FAANG—Facebook parent Meta Platforms, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google parent Alphabet—no longer drive the performance of major stock indexes as they did for years. Those companies’ shares all are down significantly in 2022, and Meta, Amazon and Alphabet all fell sharply this week after reporting lackluster earnings. Amazon’s shares slid $7.55, or 6.8%, to $103.41 Friday following downbeat guidance for its current quarter, which includes the crucial holiday shopping period. Meta’s shares edged $1.26, or 1.3%, higher to $99.20 after losing nearly 25% on Thursday following disappointing quarterly results. Apple was a bright spot, leading the Dow industrials higher with gains of $10.94, or 7.6%, to $155.74. Thus, not all third-quarter earnings have been bad with Apple reporting record revenue in its latest quarter and oil giants Exxon Mobil plus Chevron posting posted some of their highest-ever quarterly profits on Friday. Results from some U.S. banks and industrial bellwether Caterpillar have also been surprisingly resilient. Tesla CEO Elon Musk (+1.5%) completed his takeover of Twitter (suspended from trading on Friday at $53.70) and dismissed several executives from the social network, including CEO Parag Agrawal and CFO Ned Segal. Chevron (+1.2%) reported a third-quarter net income of $11.2 billion, nearly matching its second-quarter record. Exxon Mobil (+2.9%) posted a third-quarter net income of $19.7 billion, following second-quarter earnings of $17.9 billion.

In Asia, major indexes broadly closed with gains on Monday. China’s Shanghai Composite held its ground, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 1.0 per cent. Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 1.6 per cent, the balance sheet season makes the prices. Keyence jumps 8.3 per cent. The company increased profits by 27 per cent in the first half of the financial year. The Kospi in Seoul edged 1.1 per cent higher.

Two-, 10- and 30-year U.S. Treasury yields finished the New York session higher on Friday but had their biggest weekly declines in at least three months as traders considered the possibility that policy makers might back off aggressive rate hikes by year-end. The 10-year Treasury note was yielding 4.012%, up 6 basis points. The 2-year Treasury note was yielding rose by 9 basis points to 4.412%.

UBS lowers target Schweiter Technologies to CHF 650 (860) - Sell

Société Générale cuts Nestle to Sell (Buy) - target CHF 100 (130)

JP Morgan reduces Credit Suisse target to CHF 5.50 (6) - Neutral

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