The wait is finally over for Tesla’s much anticipated Cybertruck. At its Austin, Texas-area factory on Thursday, the electric-vehicle maker handed over the first pickups to customers, marking the official start of sales for this unique model that was unveiled in 2019. Tesla also revealed updated pricing for the truck, with the entry-level model to start at roughly $61,000 - about $21,000 more than it had previously specified in 2019. It will also sell two other, higher-end versions with the most expensive - the Cyberbeast - starting at nearly $100,000. The truck will have a battery range of as much as 340 miles on a single charge, which is lower than the 500 miles promised for the top-of-the-line version originally. On its website, the automaker said an add-on could increase the range to 470 miles or more but didn’t say how much this feature would cost. “We have a car here that experts said was impossible, that experts said would never be made,” Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said during the event.

The Swiss market shrugged off early weakness and moved higher on Thursday, with several big stocks attracting sustained buying interest. The benchmark SMI, which dropped to 10,770.87 in early trades, ended the day's session with a gain of 51.44 points or 0.48% at 10,854.32, off the day's high of 10,871.03. UBS Group climbed more than 3%, topping the list of gainers in the SMI index. ABB and Logitech International gained 1.82% and 1.57%, respectively. Givaudan, Alcon, Partners Group, Holcim, Geberit, Zurich Insurance Company and Swiss Re ended higher by 0.5 to 0.85%. Among the stocks in the Swiss Mid Price Index, ams OSRAM AG rallied 6.25%. VAT Group gained 4.5% and Baloise Holding climbed 3.16%. BKW ended higher by 2.32%. Julius Baer gained nearly 2%. Temenos Group and Helvetia ended higher by 1.51% and 1.35%, respectively. Ems Chemie Holding and PSP Swiss Property both ended nearly 1% up. Sandoz ended 3.7% down. Straumann Holding drifted down 1.43%, while Meyer Burger Tech and Avolta ended down 1.16% and 1.1%, respectively. On the economic front, data from the Federal Statistical Office showed retail sales in Switzerland fell 0.1% year-on-year in October, easing from an upwardly revised 1.2% fall in the previous month. Although it was the fourth straight decline, the drop was the softest in the sequence. A report from the Swiss Economic Institute said the leading KOF economic barometer increased to 96.7 in November, the highest reading since April, from a downwardly revised 95.1 in October.

European stocks closed on a firm note on Thursday as soft Eurozone inflation data, and rising optimism the Federal Reserve will start reducing interest rates from the first quarter of next year helped underpin sentiment. The cooler than expected eurozone inflation has raised hopes the European Central Bank will begin cutting rates from early next year. The pan European Stoxx 600 climbed 0.55%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 gained 0.41%, Germany's DAX ended 0.3% up, and France's CAC ended stronger by 0.59%, while Switzerland's SMI settled with a gain of 0.48%. Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway and Portugal ended higher. Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Turkiye closed weak. In the UK market, Smurfit Kappa Group rallied nearly 4.5%. Ds Smith, Standard Chartered, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Carnival, Easyjet, GlaxoSmithKline, Hargreaves Lansdown, Bunzl and Ferguso gained 1.4 to 2.5%. Severn Trent tumbled 5%. United Utilities and Pennon both ended lower by about 3.7%. Johnson Matthey ended nearly 2.5% down, while TUI dropped around 2%. Brenntag, up 3%, was the top gainer in Germany's DAX index.

U.S. stocks recorded their best month in more than a year, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbing Thursday to a 2023 high, while bonds posted their biggest monthly gain in years. Commerce Department data on Thursday showed that Americans slowed their spending and that inflation continued to ease in October, boosting expectations that the Fed is done raising rates. All three major U.S. stock indexes ended November at least 8% higher, snapping three-month losing streaks. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite led the way, ending the month up 10.7% despite a 0.2% decline on Thursday. The S&P 500 gained 0.4% Thursday to finish November 8.9% higher. The blue-chip Dow, which on Thursday rose 1.5%, or 520 points, had its best month since October 2022, climbing 8.8% to its highest close since January 2022. The stocks that led the equities rally were generally in sectors most sensitive to borrowing costs, including information technology, real estate and finance, along with companies that rely on consumer discretionary spending. Those segments of the S&P 500 climbed at least 10% during the month. Real-estate stocks had their biggest monthly increase since October 2011, when they were climbing back from the depths of the foreclosure crisis. Several companies’ quarterly results and sales outlooks were cheered by investors on Thursday. Lingerie seller Victoria’s Secret added 14%, while furniture maker La-Z-Boy and discounter Big Lots rose 11% and 9.8%, respectively. Salesforce, the business software giant, also impressed investors with its own quarterly results, driving up its shares 9.4% to lead both the Dow and the S&P 500 on Thursday.

The East Asian stock markets were mostly down on the last trading day of the week. The Shanghai Composite fell by 0.4 per cent and the Hang Seng Index was down 0.6 per cent. After the official purchasing managers' indices for the manufacturing and service sectors fell for the second month in a row the previous day, the private Caixin purchasing managers' index for the manufacturing sector paints a completely different picture. An increase was reported here on Friday, with the index jumping back above the expansion threshold of 50 points.

November’s gains were accompanied by a bond rally that drove the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note down to 4.349% on Thursday, from just above 5% in late October. The benchmark yield recorded its biggest monthly slide since 2019.

JP Morgan raises VAT Group to Overweight (Neutral) – Target CHF 500 (350)
JP Morgan lowers Julius Baer target to CHF 60 (64) – Overweight
JP Morgan cuts Ericsson to Neutral (Overweight) – Target SEK 61 (85)

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