Microsoft closed its $75 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the largest in a decade of deals under Chief Executive Satya Nadella that have positioned the software giant at the center of sectors from videogames to artificial intelligence. The purchase is the biggest deal in its nearly 50-year history and took 21 months to get through a global gantlet of regulators. Activision’s stable of bestselling franchises, including Call of Duty and Candy Crush, will strengthen Microsoft’s videogame business by more than half to above $24 billion. The additions also will move the business further away from Xbox consoles and toward gaming content that lives across platforms and devices. It is the largest in a series of major moves by Nadella, who has used Microsoft’s financial strength to push the company into new areas, from cloud computing to social media to AI. Nadella’s objective has been getting into new areas as quickly as possible, people who have worked with him say. “If he can do that by buying something that helps him to do it faster, he will,” said Jim DuBois, a former Microsoft chief information officer who worked under Nadella and his predecessors. Despite the large investment, Microsoft’s videogaming business remains a small part of the overall company.

The Swiss stock market ended on a weak note on Friday, tracking weakness in other markets in Europe, as worries about inflation and interest rates weighed on sentiment. The benchmark SMI ended with a loss of 79.47 points or 0.72% at 10,900.30. Lonza Group and UBS Group shed 2.48% and 2.4%, respectively. Richemont, Geberit, Novartis, Partners Group and ABB declined 1.4 to 1.7%. Sonova ended 1.18% down. Logitech, Swiss Life Holding, Givaudan and Holcim also ended weak. Roche Holding gained nearly 1%. Swiss Re ended higher by about 0.7%. In the Mid Price Index, Tecan Group ended 5.67% down, and Belimo Holding declined nearly 5%. Temenos Group, Meyer Burger Tech, AMS, Addeco, Swatch Group, SIG Combibloc, Georg Fischer, VAT Group and Straumann Holding lost 2 to 3.6%. Data from Swiss Federal Statistical Office showed Switzerland's producer and import prices fell 0.1% from a month earlier in September 2023, following a 0.2% decrease in August. It also marked the third consecutive month of deflation, due mainly to lower costs of crude oil and natural gas. Switzerland's producer and import prices shrank 1% year-on-year in September 2023, down from August's 0.8% drop.

European stocks closed notably lower on Friday as concerns about interest rates, inflation and geopolitical tensions outweighed stronger than expected earnings updates from some major U.S. lenders. Higher producer price and consumer price inflation readings from the U.S. have raised concerns the Federal Reserve will continue to keep interest rates higher for longer. Comments from Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey that future rate decisions by the central bank would continue to be tight weighed as well. Major U.S. banks JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup all reported stronger than expected third quarter earnings. The pan European Stoxx 600 declined 0.98%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 ended down 0.59%, Germany's DAX drifted down 1.55% and France's CAC shed 1.42%, while Switzerland's SMI lost 0.72%. Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Turkiye closed weak. Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Poland and Russia ended higher. Eurozone industrial production recovered in August driven by the rebound in capital goods and durable consumer goods output, Eurostat said on Friday. Industrial output grew by more-than-expected 0.6% on a monthly basis in August, in contrast to the 1.3% decrease in the previous month. Output was forecast to rise 0.1%. On a yearly basis, the decline in industrial production deepened to 5.1% from 2.2% in July. This was worse than economists' forecast of 3.5% decrease. In the UK market, St. James's Place shares plunged 21% on reports it is under pressure from regulators to overhaul its fee structure.

The threat of broader conflict in the Middle East drove investors to safe-haven assets like U.S. Treasurys, gold and utility stocks Friday, while rising oil prices lifted energy shares. Technology stocks and shares of companies that depend on discretionary spending, including casinos, cruise lines and dating apps, fell. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 1.2%, while the S&P 500 shed 0.5%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, buoyed by gains in UnitedHealth Group, Chevron and JPMorgan Chase, added 0.1%, or about 39 points. The S&P 500 and Dow industrials managed gains for the week, while the tech-focused Nasdaq declined slightly. Major stock indexes traded higher to start Friday, following strong earnings from JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and Citigroup, which collectively reported more than $22 billion in profits during the third quarter. Traders also cheered remarks made before the opening bell by a voting member of the interest-rate setting Federal Open Market Committee, who said he doesn’t see a need for borrowing costs to be raised further. Insurer Progressive added 8.1% to close at a new all-time high after reporting third-quarter earnings that exceeded Wall Street’s expectations. Rival Allstate got a lift as well, gaining 5.6%. Energy producers APA and Marathon Oil rose 5.2% and 4.8%, respectively. Diamondback Energy, which drills in West Texas’s prolific Permian Basin, climbed 2.6% to a new all-time high. Like the big banks, money manager BlackRock’s third-quarter earnings also beat analyst’s expectations. Its shares, however, fell 1.3%. CEO Larry Fink said the highest Treasury yields in years are prompting clients, such as pension funds, to move money out of stocks and into safer government debt.

Share prices in East Asia and Australia are down at the beginning of the new week. The Nikkei index in Tokyo loses 1.8 per cent to 31,727 points, and in Seoul it also drops sharply by 1.2 per cent. The losses on the Chinese stock exchanges and in Sydney are smaller, at up to 0.4 per cent.

U.S. treasury yields, which have been rising lately and pushing stocks down, edged lower Friday. The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes declined to 4.628%, down from 4.71% on Thursday. Yields fall as prices rise.

JP Morgan raises Publicis target to EUR 93 (92) – Overweight
JP Morgan raises Deliveroo to Neutral (Underweight)/target 142 (113) GBp
JP Morgan raises Agricole target to EUR 12.90 (12.80) – Underweight
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