Tesla Inc. suspended car production at its Shanghai plant, extending a planned eight-day production halt at its largest worldwide plant by car output, according to people familiar with the matter. The decision to extend the work halt comes as Tesla faces a wave of Covid-19 infections among its workers and suppliers, the people said. The temporary halt follows a recent slowdown in global demand for Tesla vehicles. On Saturday, Tesla told some of its Shanghai employees that it would stop car production that day, a day earlier than originally planned, the people said. The company earlier told staff that production would resume on Jan. 2, they said. One of the people said that while it isn’t unusual for auto makers to pause work on some production lines during the Lunar New Year holiday and the summer, Tesla hasn’t traditionally halted all car production during the Christmas holidays. During the summer, Tesla boosted the capacity of its Shanghai plant to more than 750,000 vehicles a year. However, demand for its cars has been weaker than expected over the past two months, they said, as China’s auto market turned sluggish.

The Swiss stock market ended modestly higher on Tuesday, after staying in tight range above the flat line right through the day's session. The benchmark SMI, which touched a low of 10,817.48 and a high of 10,876.38, ended the session with a gain of 34.54 points or 0.32% at 10,839.22. Richemont climbed nearly 3.5%. ABB gained 1.2% and Holcim ended 0.71% up, while Sika, UBS Group, Geberit and Zurich Insurance Group gained 0.4 to 0.6%. Lonza Group, Roche Holdings, Sonova and Alcon ended lower by 0.2 to 0.4%. In the Mid Price Index, Swatch Group rallied about 2.7%. Kuehne & Nagel gained nearly 1%, while Julius Baer, Dufry, Temenos Group and Lindt & Spruengli gained 0.5 to 0.7%. AMS ended 1.65 down, while Zur Rose ended lower by about 0.5%

European stocks closed higher on Tuesday, reacting positively to the news about China's decision to lift the mandatory quarantine rules for international travelers from January 8. The pan European Stoxx 600 edged up 0.13%. Germany's DAX climbed 0.39% and France's CAC 40 surged 0.7%. Switzerland's SMI gained 0.32%. The U.K. market remained closed for a public holiday. Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Czech Republic, Greece, Iceland, Russia and Sweden closed higher. Denmark and Finland edged up marginally. Belgium, Poland, Portugal and Turkiye closed weak, while Ireland, Netherlands, Norway and Spain ended flat. In Paris, LVMH gained over 2.5%. Hermes International, Kering, Safran, L'Oreal and TotalEnergies advanced 1 to 2%. In the German market, Sartorius, MTU Aero Engines and Covestro surged 1.2 to 1.5%. BASF, Symrise, Zalando, Puma and Continental gained 0.7 to 1.1%. HelloFresh drifted down more than 2% and Infineon Tehnologies ended lower by about 1%. Deutsche Wohnen and Fresenius also ended weak. In economic news, Norway's retail sales rebounded in November amid a renewed increase in automotive fuel sales, preliminary data from Statistics Norway showed on Tuesday. Retail sales rose a seasonally adjusted 0.9% month-on-month in November, reversing a 0.2% decrease in October.

With trading resuming following the long Christmas weekend, stocks moved mostly lower during trading on Tuesday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq showed a particularly steep drop, tumbling to its lowest closing level in well over a month. The Nasdaq plunged 144.64 points or 1.4 percent to 10,353.23 and the S&P 500 fell 15.57 points or 0.4 percent to 3,829.25. Meanwhile, the narrower Dow inched up 37.63 points or 0.1 percent to 33,241.56. The weakness on Wall Street partly reflected lingering concerns about the economic outlook following recent indications the Federal Reserve plans to continuing raising interest rates. Trading activity was relatively subdued, however, as some traders remained away from their desks following the long Christmas weekend. A light economic calendar also kept traders on the sidelines, although reports on pending home sales, weekly jobless claims and Chicago-area business activity may attract attention in the coming days. Airline stocks moved sharply lower on the day, with the NYSE Arca Airline Index plunging by 2.3 percent amid continued flight cancellations due to the severe winter storm. Southwest Airlines (LUV) posted a steep loss following news the Department of Transportation is investigating the company's 'unacceptable rate of cancellations.' Biotechnology and semiconductor stocks also saw significant weakness, contributing to the sharp drop by the tech-heavy Nasdaq. Reflecting the weakness in the sectors, the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index slid by 1.9 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively.

At midweek, no consistent trend can be observed on the stock exchanges in East Asia and Australia. At many stock exchanges, there is minor profit taking, as the euphoria over the end of the pandemic-related travel restrictions in China has faded again. The Hong Kong stock exchange is clearly on the rise. Here is a need to catch up because the stock market there was closed on Tuesday - as well as the Australian stock exchange - because of a substitute holiday for the Boxing Day.

In the US bond market, yields rose in anticipation of future Fed rate hikes. Easing in China also reduced interest in perceived safety. The yield on 10-year paper increased by 10.5 basis points to 3.85 per cent.

Baader raises Metro target to EUR 8.75 (6) – Reduce
Bryan Garnier lowers Heineken to EUR 99 (110) – Buy
DZ Bank raises Aurubis target to EUR 82 (65) – Hold

Produced by MBI Martin Brückner Infosource GmbH & Co. KG on behalf of Swissquote. All news is acquired with journalistic accuracy. No liability is assumed for delays or errors.