Rupert Murdoch is stepping down as chair of Fox and News Corp, after building a media empire over seven decades that revolutionized news and entertainment and made him one of the world’s most influential and controversial tycoons. Murdoch, 92 years old, will exit his roles atop each company as of November, when they hold annual meetings, the companies said. He will be appointed chairman emeritus of each company. His eldest son, Lachlan Murdoch, who has served as co-chair of News Corp, will become sole chair of that company and will continue as Fox Corp. executive chair and CEO. “For my entire professional life, I have been engaged daily with news and ideas, and that will not change. But the time is right for me to take on different roles,” Rupert Murdoch wrote in a memo to staff. His decision to step back solidifies Lachlan Murdoch as his successor. He called Lachlan a “passionate, principled leader” who can take the companies into the future.

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Despite recovering from a weak start, the Switzerland stock market turned easy by early afternoon on Thursday and struggled for support thereafter to eventually close the day's session with moderate losses. Concerns about the outlook for interest rates weighed on the market, after the Swiss National Bank (SNB) unexpectedly left its benchmark rate unchanged, but left the door open for future hikes. The benchmark SMI, which climbed to 11,219.56 after opening modestly lower, ended the day with a loss of 69.37 points or 0.62% at 11,084.74, slightly off the day's low of 11,074.47. Lonza Group and Partners Group both ended lower by about 3.25%. Alcon, Roche Holding and UBS Group lost 1.9 to 2.1%. Sika ended lower by 1.19%. ABB, Holcim, Kuehne & Nagel, Geberit and Givaudan posted moderate losses. Nestle climbed 1.12%. Swisscom and Sonova ended higher by 0.91% and 0.87%, respectively. In the Mid Price Index, AMS and Bachem Holding ended down 4.02% and 3.48%, respectively. Dufry, Tecan Group and Straumann Holding lost 2.89%, 2.67% and 2.34%, respectively. Ems Chemie Holding, SIG Combibloc, Clariant, SGS, Barry Callebaut and Julius Baer lost 1.1 to 2%. The SNB Governing Board, chaired by Thomas Jordan, decided to hold the policy rate at 1.75 percent, while markets expected a final quarter-point hike.

European markets ended on a negative note on Thursday with investors digesting a slew of monetary policy decisions from global central banks, including the Bank of England (BoE) and the U.S. Federal Reserve. The BoE left its policy rate unchanged at 5.25% with the bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voting 5-4 in favor of holding the policy rate steady. The BoE decided to hold rates steady for the first time since November 2021 as inflation eased to an 18-month low, while the economy is moving closer to a mild recession. Markets had widely expected a quarter-point hike. The bank had tightened its policy at each and every rate-setting meeting since December 2021, when the rate stood at a modest 0.1%. At 5.25%, the interest rate is the highest since early 2008. The Swiss National Bank too paused its hiking cycle, but warned that more increases may still be needed. Sweden's Riksbank raised borrowing costs by a quarter point and said it might need to do more to bring inflation back to its 2% target. Norway's central bank Norges Bank raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points and indicated another rate hike in December to curb inflation.The pan European Stoxx 600 ended 1.3% down. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 ended lower by 0.69%, Germany's DAX fell 1.33% and France's CAC 40 lost 1.59%, while Switzerland's SMI declined 0.62%. Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain and Sweden closed weak. Turkiye ended sharply higher, while Greece ended flat. In the UK market, Just Eat Takeawy.com, ended 4.4% down. Flutter Entertainment, Croda International, Antofagasta, Melrose Industries, Rio Tinto, Anglo American, Glencore, Halma, Ferguson, Fresnillo, IG and IHG declined 2 to 3.5%. Ocado Group plunged nearly 20% following a rating downgrade.

Extending the sell-off seen late in the previous session, stocks moved sharply lower over the course of the trading day on Thursday. The major averages all posted steep losses on the day, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq plunging to its lowest closing level in over three months. The major averages saw further downside going into the close, ending the day just off their lows of the session. The Nasdaq plummeted 245.14 points or 1.8 percent to 13,223.98, the S&P 500 dove 72.20 points or 1.6 percent to 4,330.00 and the Dow tumbled 370.46 points or 1.1 percent to 34,070.42. Concerns about the outlook for interest rates continued to weigh on Wall Street following the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday. Adding to the concerns about interest rates, the Labor Department released a report this morning showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell to a seven-month low in the week ended September 16th. The report said initial jobless claims dipped to 201,000, a decrease of 20,000 from the previous week's revised level of 221,000. Cisco Systems has struck a $28 billion deal to buy analytics and security-software company Splunk as the networking-equipment giant looks to tap further into the rise of artificial intelligence. The deal will create one of the world’s largest software companies, Cisco said, and will immediately boost its cash flow in the first year after closing, which is expected by the end of September 2024.

Stock markets in East Asia and Australia are mixed on Friday, with indices recovering as they go. The Bank of Japan (BoJ) maintains its ultra-expansionary stance, leaving the deposit rate and the target yield on 10-year government bonds unchanged. The yen then makes another move back close to its lows for the year against the dollar after the previous day's interim recovery. On a daily basis, the dollar gains 0.4 per cent to 148.18 yen. Meanwhile, the Nikkei 225 index reduced initial losses to just 0.2 per cent and stands at 32,513 points.

In the U.S. bond market, treasuries moved sharply lower amid concerns about the outlook for interest rates. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, spiked 13.1 basis points to a nearly sixteen-year closing high of 4.480 percent.

Dt. Bank launches Befesa with Hold and target EUR 32

JPM lowers the Kuehne + Nagel target to CHF 237 (245) – Neutral

Dt. Bank lowers the Lonza target to CHF 514 (610) – Buy

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