Julius Baer reported a rise in assets under management or AUM for the first-10 months of 2023. However, the company projects a decline in net earnings for the full-year 2023. 'Following a rise in credit provisions in November and a year-to-date increase in the effective tax rate, the Group currently does not expect the full year 2023 net profit level to reach the one achieved in 2022, which was the second best in the Group's history,' Julius Bar said in a statement. For the full-year 2022, the company had reported a net profit of CHF 949.1 million. For the first ten months of 2023, AUM climbed 3 percent or CHF 11 billion to CHF 435 billion from previous year. The increase was driven mainly by continued net new money inflows and a net positive global equity market performance, partly offset by a negative currency impact which resulted from a strong trend in Swiss franc.

The Switzerland stock market ended flat on Monday after spending much of the day's session in negative territory in cautious trade. The benchmark SMI, which spent not more than a few minutes in positive territory during the session, ended with a marginal gain of 2.90 points or 0.03% at 10,740.27. The index touched a low of 10,699.62 and a high of 10,747.72. Richemont gained about 1.1%. Swiss Re advanced nearly 1%. Alcon, Sonova, Lonza Group, Givaudan, Kuehne & Nagel, UBS Group and Logitech International advanced 0.5 to 0.85%. Swiss Life Holding declined 1.11%. Nestle ended 0.71% down. ABB and Partners Group ended modestly lower. In the Mid Price Index, Julius Baer tanked 12% after lowering profit expectations. AMS ended nearly 5% down. SIG Combibloc ended lower by 1.05% and Barry Callebaut drifted down 0.8%. Sandoz rallied about 2.75%. Belimo Holding surged 1.8%. Temenos Group, Swatch Group, Swiss Prime Site, BKW and Straumann Holding posted moderate gains

The major European markets ended mixed on Monday with investors digesting the latest batch of economic data and looking ahead to speeches from top officials of a few central banks and the minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting, for clues about future interest-rate moves. The pan European Stoxx 600 edged up 0.1%. France's CAC 40 gained 0.18%, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 and Germany's DAX both ended down 0.11%. Switzerland's SMI ended 0.03% up. Among other markets in Europe, Denmark, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Turkiye closed higher. Austria, Finland, Netherlands and Russia edged up marginally. Iceland ended notably lower, while Belgium, Czech Republic and Greece settled a bit weak. In the UK market, Spirax-Sarco Engineering gained nearly 3%. Flutter Entertainment, TUI, Antofagasta and Halma climbed 2 to 2.5%. Royal Dutch Shell, Scottish Mortgage, Admiral Group, Rentokil Initial, Rio Tinto and Burberry Group also ended notably higher. Ashtead tanked more than 10% after the British equipment rental firm warned that annual profits will fall short of forecasts. Smurfit Kappa Group ended nearly 3% down. Compass Group, CRH, DCC, Severn Trent, Ds Smith, Ferguson, AstraZeneca, Bunzi and Associated British Foods ended lower by 1.2 to 1.6%. In the German market, Puma, Merck, Sartorius, Siemens Energy, SAP, Zalando, Hannover Rueck, Deutsche Post, Vonovia, Deutsche Bank and Adidas gained 1 to 2.6%. Bayer plunged 17.7% after stopping the main study of its top experimental medicine and losing a key U.S. trial against its weed killer Roundup. Henkel ended nearly 2% down. Beiersdorf, Siemens, RWE and Fresenius Medical Care closed moderately lower.

Investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence took center stage again Monday, after Microsoft announced it was hiring freshly ousted OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to lead its new advanced AI research team. The news spurred a rally in Microsoft shares, helping power stock indexes higher. The S&P 500 climbed 0.7%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6%, or around 204 points. More than 500 OpenAI employees have demanded that former CEO Sam Altman be reinstated after the company’s board fired him on Friday. Microsoft said late Sunday that it hired Altman to lead a new advanced artificial-intelligence research team. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Coming off three straight weeks of gains, the S&P 500 is now up 8.4% this month and 18% for the year. The recent rally has been fueled by growing bets that the Federal Reserve is done raising interest rates. But optimism about AI has continued to be a tailwind as well, extending a trend that kicked off last year after OpenAI’s release of its ChatGPT chatbot. Already a major beneficiary of the so-called AI trade, Microsoft shares rose a further 2.1% to a new all-time high after it announced Altman’s hiring late Sunday. The move followed Altman’s unexpected ouster by OpenAI’s board on Friday, and a subsequent effort by investors to bring him back to the company. Paramount Global was among the top gainers in the S&P 500, rising 5.6% after it said in a filing late Friday that it had adopted a severance plan for senior executives that would be implemented if the executives leave following a change in control of the company.

The stock markets in East Asia and Australia showed the same trend on Tuesday as on the previous day: most stock exchanges were up, Japan lagged behind. On the Japanese market, the Nikkei is little changed at 33,392 points. Share prices are once again being held back by the strength of the domestic currency, with the dollar now trading at 147.57 yen after 149.07 at the close in Tokyo on Monday.

U.S. yields, which help determine interest rates across the economy, initially ticked higher in morning trading but fell after a government auction of 20-year bonds met with strong demand from investors. The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note settled at 4.421%, down from 4.441% Friday and 4.874% at the end of October.

Citi lowers Vodafone target to 78 (79) p – Neutral
Barclays lowers Bayer to Equalweight (Overweight) – target EUR 40 (65)
JP Morgan lowers Flutter target to 15,700 (17,100) p – Neutral

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