Johnson & Johnson’s $35 billion exchange offer for Kenvue that expired last Friday was substantially oversubscribed. The result is that participating J&J holders will be able to convert only a fraction of their shares for Kenvue stock. J&J said that the preliminary proration estimate is 23.8%, meaning that J&J holders who participated in the exchange will see just 23.8% of their shares swapped for Kenvue (KVUE) stock. The rest of J&J shares submitted by J&J investors in the exchange offer will be returned to them. The exchange offer announced in late July was popular with J&J holders with about 803 million J&J shares tendered, or about 30% of the healthcare giant’s outstanding stock. The exception to the proration is J&J holders who held less than 100 shares and submitted them all in the exchange offer. They will not be subject to proration. The “odd-lot” exception to the proration attracted considerable interest from retail investors since J&J was offering roughly $107.50 in Kenvue stock for $100 in J&J shares as an inducement for its holders to make the swap.

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After recovering from a slightly weak start and staying firm till around mid afternoon on Monday, the Swiss market kept paring gains and eventually ended the day's session just marginally up. The benchmark SMI, which climbed to a high of 10,926.01, ended with a small gain of 9.28 points or 0.09% at 10,848.34. Alcon climbed nearly 1.5%. Sonova gained 0.87%, Swiss Life Holding advanced 0.75% and Novartis climbed 0.68%. Richemont gained nearly 0.5%. Holcim drifted down 1.69% and Sika ended lower by 1.05%. Lonza Group, Givaudan, ABB, Geberit and Roche Holding lost 0.3 to 0.42%. In the Mid Price Index, DocMorris rallied 5.4%. AMS and Meyer Burger Tech gained 2.7% and 2.36%, respectively. Adecco advanced nearly 1%, while Helvetia, Galenica Sante and Belimo Holding gained 0.6 to 0.8%. Tecan Group ended down 2.28%, PSP Swiss Property settled lower by 1.25%, while Lindt & Spruengli, Bachem Holding, Barry Callebaut and Flughafen Zurich lost 0.8 to 1%.

European stocks pared most of their gains and closed just slightly higher on Monday with investors lightening commitments, preferring to wait for more directional clues. Worries about China's growth continued to weigh on sentiment. Investors were also concerned about the outlook for interest rates following recent hawkish comments from some Fed officials, and a mixed batch of economic data. Investors looked ahead to the upcoming Jackson Hole Symposium, and awaited some key earnings updates. In China, the People's Bank of China today lowered its one-year loan prime rate by 0.10 basis points to 3.45%, but left the five-year rate unchanged at 4.2%. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's speech at the annual symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Friday, is likely to provide some clues about the central bank's future interest rate moves. The pan European Stoxx 600 edged up 0.05%. Germany's DAX gained 0.19% and France's CAC 40 climbed 0.47% and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 edged down 0.06%. Switzerland's SMI ended 0.09%. Among other markets in Europe, Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Iceland, Norway, Portugal, Russia and Turkiye closed higher. Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands and Sweden ended weak, while Austria, Poland and Spain closed flat. In the UK market, Pershing Square Holdings rallied about 2.3%.

good day for tech shares helped support stock indexes on Monday even while Treasury yields climbed to new decade-plus highs. Fresh off its third straight week of declines, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was the top-performing major index, rising 1.6%. The S&P 500 climbed 0.7%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped roughly 37 points, or 0.1%. Stocks have been pressured recently by rising bond yields but were largely able to withstand a further jump in yields –- wavering a bit in early trading and ultimately finding their footing again. Chief among those was Nvidia, the chip-making giant that will report earnings on Wednesday. Its shares rose 8.5% Monday, putting their year-to-date gain at 221% and fully erasing their month-to-date losses. Also bouncing back from tough weeks were Tesla, which jumped 7.3%, and Meta Platforms, which rose 2.3%. Some analysts have said that the importance of Nvidia's earnings will stretch beyond its own stock. The company's blockbuster earnings report three months ago has since been seen as a turning point for the market, having sparked a surge in investor optimism about demand for artificial intelligence technology and its potential to transform the economy. Investors are also looking at this week's gathering of central-bank officials and economists for the Kansas City Fed's annual symposium at Jackson Hole, Wyo., as another key event that could affect markets. Particularly since the theme of the meeting will be "structural shifts in the global economy," investors are prepared for discussion about the so-called neutral interest rate that officials think is sufficient to neither slow nor speed up the economy.

The majority of East Asian stock markets are showing slight gains on Tuesday. However, the gains are limited against the backdrop of continuing economic worries in China and before Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's appearance at the central bank meeting in Jackson Hole on Friday. The Nikkei index in Tokyo improved by 0.8 per cent to 31,810 points. Hong Kong, which had recently fallen for seven trading days in a row, also recovers slightly. The Hang Seng Index gained 0.2 per cent. Participants, however, speak only of a technical countermovement. In contrast, the Shanghai Composite loses 0.2 per cent after initial gains.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note settled at 4.339%, up from 4.251% Friday. That surpassed its nearly 16-year high set last Thursday to again mark its highest close since late 2007.

JP Morgan lowers Adyen target to EUR 1,500 (1,850) – Overweight

UBS lifts U-blox to Neutral (Sell) – Target CHF 81 (107)

Deutsche Bank lowers Suse to Hold (Buy) – Target EUR 16 (17)

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