Facebook parent Meta Platforms reported its largest quarterly revenue since going public more than a decade ago as demand for advertising picked up and the company continued to reap the benefits of cutting costs and developing new AI technology. Meta’s sales increased to $34.1 billion, up more than 23% compared with a year ago. That represents Meta’s third quarter in a row of rising revenue after the company saw its business shrink for most of 2022. The 23% increase is Meta’s largest year-to-year growth in revenue since the third quarter of 2021. Meta posted a net profit of $11.6 billion for the third quarter - more than double its net profit from a year prior and up from $7.8 billion in the April-to-June quarter. Advertising made up 98.5% of Meta’s revenue in the quarter. The company’s advertising revenue rose to $33.6 billion. Meta said its average ad price fell 6% year over year. In the same quarter last year, the average price per ad decreased by 18%. Meta shares gained 2.6% in post-close trading in response to this publication, after falling by 4.1% on Wednesday in the wake of Google's corporate announcements.

Share prices in Switzerland emerged from a volatile session on Wednesday in good shape. This was thanks to the heavyweights Nestle (+0.5 per cent), Novartis (+0.8 per cent) and Roche (+0.1 per cent), which are considered defensive, finding their way back into positive territory in late trading. The SMI gained 0.2 per cent to 10,401 points. Among the 20 SMI stocks, there were eleven winners and nine losers. 16.26 (previously: 18.17) million shares were traded. The financial results of the logistics company Kühne + Nagel (-4.6%) were received with disappointment. Lonza was even weaker, falling by 4.8 per cent. Sika declined by 1.7 per cent without news. Weaker business figures from the French luxury goods group Kering weighed on Richemont (-0.9 per cent) and Swatch (-0.9 per cent). On the other hand, follow-on buying helped Logitech to a plus of 2.4 per cent. Among the second-line stocks, Sulzer slumped 6.2 per cent. The industrial group reported a decline in incoming orders.

Europe's main stock markets closed higher on Wednesday, amid a deluge of quarterly results and despite renewed inflationary pressures on the eve of the European Central Bank (ECB) meeting. The Stoxx Europe 600 index gained less than 0.1% to 435.27 points. In Paris, the CAC 40 advanced by 0.3% to 6,915.07 points, while the SBF 120 rose by 0.2% to 5,231.84 points. In Frankfurt, the DAX 40 ended up by less than 0.1%, while the FTSE 100 in London climbed by 0.3%. Electronic payments specialist Worldline collapsed by 59.2%, after issuing a severe warning about its results for the 2023 financial year due to a deterioration in the global economy and the discontinuation of certain services. Dassault Systèmes (+8%) raised its guidance range for diluted earnings per share (EPS) and confirmed its revenue growth target for 2023, after software sales beat its own expectations in the third quarter. The operator of retirement homes and clinics Clariane (-20.3%) predicted "financial leverage of around 3.8 times in December 2023", depending on the timetable for finalising current property partnership deals. Kering (-3.5%) reported sales below analysts' expectations for the third quarter, as the group suffered from the slowdown in the luxury goods market and the overhaul of its distribution network. German banking group Deutsche Bank (+7.6% in Frankfurt) confirmed on Wednesday that it should be able to increase shareholder remuneration until 2025 and beyond.

A steep drop in shares of Alphabet, Amazon.com and other technology companies dragged the Nasdaq Composite into correction territory Wednesday. The tech-heavy index slid 2.4% in a punishing session that pulled it down more than 10% from its recent high. Its losses accelerated in the afternoon, sending the gauge to one of its worst one-day declines of the year. The S&P 500 fell 1.4%, closing at its lowest level since May. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 105 points, or 0.3%. Shares of Google-parent Alphabet tumbled almost 10% after reporting quarterly results that showed disappointing growth in its cloud business. The company shed more than $166 billion in market value, its biggest one-day loss ever. Shares of Amazon.com and Nvidia also fell, lagging behind the broader market, while fintech company Affirm and payments company Block dropped sharply. Texas Instruments also reported lackluster third-quarter earnings results, weighing on other semiconductor stocks. Shares of Texas Instruments shed 3.5%. Nvidia lost more than 4.3%, and AMD and Intel each dropped around 5%. Of course, it hasn’t been all bad; cloud results at Microsoft gave its shares a boost. The stock added 3.1%. Shares of TransUnion, one of the three major credit-reporting firms, fell 7.1% Wednesday after a 23% swoon in the prior session. The company, which provides credit scoring and related tools for lenders’ underwriting decisions, cut its expectations for this year and pulled its 2025 financial targets, after lower mortgage activity dented its business. Executives also flagged a broader slowdown in banks’ consumer lending. Home Depot shares have slid for seven consecutive sessions, the longest losing streak since 2016, before a rush to buy homes and fix them up during the pandemic sent shares to records. Many investors remain hungry for risk. Bitcoin prices have soared to some of their highest levels in more than a year lately, in part because of hopes that an exchange-traded fund tied to the cryptocurrency will be approved by regulators.

Stocks in Asia mostly fell on Thursday. The decreases are marked in Tokyo, where the Nikkei 225 is down 1.9 per cent. Here the focus is on the weak yen, with the dollar currently trading at 150.40 yen, well above the important threshold of 150 yen at its highest level in a year. The losses in China are not quite as marked. The Shanghai Composite shed 0.3 per cent and the Hang Seng Index slipped 0.6 per cent. In Seoul, the Kospi slumped by 2.4 per cent. Here, it is the decreases in technology stocks and the continuing weakness of battery manufacturers that are said to be weighing on sentiment.

Two- through 30-year U.S. Treasury yields jumped on Wednesday, sending long-term rates back to some of their highest levels of this year, as investors awaited U.S. economic growth and inflation data in the next few sessions. The 10-year Treasury note yield rose by 11 basis points to 4.948% while the 2-year Treasury note yield climbed by 5 basis points to 5.121%, still trading at its highest level in over sixteen years.

Target price Logitech: UBS upgrades to CHF 49 (47) - Sell
Target price Lonza: Jefferies lowers to CHF 400 (570) - Buy
Target price Schindler: Julius Baer downgrades to 190 (230) CHF - Hold

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