Johnson & Johnson is targeting sales growth of as much as 7% a year in the coming years, driven by its innovative medicine and MedTech operations. The company, which hosted a meeting with investors in New York Tuesday to present its strategy, said it anticipates operational sales growth of 5% to 6% in 2024. Adjusted operational per-share earnings are set to come in at $10.55 to $10.75 for the year, which at the midpoint would mark a rise of 7.3%. Over the five years through 2030, Johnson & Johnson said it expects compound annual sales growth of 5% to 7%, including at least 3% operational sales growth in 2025 despite the entry into the U.S. of a Stelara biosimilar. Johnson & Johnson said its MedTech operations aim to build its position with continued expansion into high-growth markets such as interventional cardiovascular, robotics and digital. The business is targeting operational sales growth in the upper range of its markets, which the company said are projected to expand 5% to 7% through 2027. It added the business is expected to generate one-third of sales from new products in 2027. In innovative medicine, the company said it is continuing to focus on areas of high innovation and higher growth while maintaining a pipeline that is expected to deliver more than 20 novel therapies and more than 50 product expansions by 2030.

The Swiss stock market continued to advance on Tuesday. The SMI improved by 0.1 per cent to 10,965 points. Among the 20 SMI stocks, there were 11 price gainers and 9 price losers. A total of 18.97 (previously: 19.01) million shares were traded. Among the individual stocks, Roche shares climbed by a further 2.3 per cent. After the acquisition in the USA had boosted the share price the previous day, the pharmaceutical group now reported positive study 3 results for the cancer drug Inavolisib in the treatment of breast cancer. The day's winners in the SMI were the shares of Geberit, which gained 2.2 per cent. At the other end of the share price table was UBS, which fell by 1.8 per cent. According to trading sources, Bank of America downgraded UBS shares to "Neutral" from "Buy" and lowered the price target by two CHF to 28 CHF.

European stock markets rallied on Tuesday, boosted by accommodative comments from an influential European Central Bank (ECB) official and a sharp fall in long-term interest rates. The Stoxx Europe 600 index closed up 0.4% at 467.6 points. In Paris, the CAC 40 and SBF 120 gained 0.7% each. The DAX 40 in Frankfurt gained 0.8%, while the FTSE 100 in London was down 0.3%. Air France-KLM (-1%) will be excluded from the STOXX Europe 600 index when markets open on December 18, according to Qontigo, the Deutsche Börse subsidiary responsible for establishing the composition of pan-European indices. Airbus (-0.3%) may seek support from European governments to finance a new commercial aircraft programme to succeed the single-aisle A320, as well as the creation of a hydrogen-powered aircraft, the chairman of the aerospace and defence group, Guillaume Faury, told the Financial Times in an interview. US telecoms operator AT&T has reached an agreement with Ericsson (up 6.1% in Stockholm) to buy up to $14 billion worth of hardware and services, with the Swedish telecoms equipment maker agreeing to open up its software to competing systems. The contract was won at the expense of Finnish rival Nokia (+5.9% in Helsinki). Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), has initiated the sale of its shares held in the British bank Barclays (-2.5% in London) for around £510 million (€595 million), reported the Financial Times.

The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite added 0.3% on Tuesday. In the S&P 500, technology and consumer-discretionary shares failed to offset declines in utilities, energy, materials and real-estate stocks, and the broad index shed less than 0.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2%, or about 80 points. All but one of the so-called Magnificent Seven technology stocks that dominate the market rose on Tuesday. Facebook and Instagram owner Meta Platforms lost 0.5%. Chip maker Nvidia led the pack higher, rising 2.3%. Apple, up 2.1%, ended with a stock-market value above $3 trillion for the first time since early August. MarketAxess Holdings was the S&P 500’s top gainer, rising 5.3% after it told investors that credit-trading volumes on its electronic bond-trading platform hit a record of $303.3 billion in November. Daily trading volumes were 9.3% higher than a year earlier and up 13% compared with October, before the bond rally began. Elsewhere in stocks, CVS Health added 3.7%. The largest U.S. pharmacy chain said it was moving to a simpler pricing model for the drugs it sells, hoping to revive stagnating margins on its core function of dispensing prescriptions. Alaska Air rose 4.4%, rebounding from Monday’s selloff that came in response to its deal to buy rival Hawaiian Airlines for $1 billion. Investors cheered quarterly earnings from peanut-butter and jelly giant J.M. Smucker, up 3.3%, and plumbing supplier Ferguson, which added 3.5%. The response to retailers’ results was a mixed bag. Lands’ End and Signet Jewelers climbed 9.6% and 5.9%, respectively. But women’s-apparel seller J.Jill fell 8.8% and DSW shoe-store owner Designer Brands dropped 33%. AutoZone barely budged, ending with a 0.3% gain. Meta Platforms (-0.5%), the parent company of Facebook, and the technology group IBM (stable) have launched a new coalition made up of more than 50 companies and research institutes working in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and advocating an "open" model for this technology. Other members of the AI Alliance include Intel (-1%) and Oracle (-1.1%).

Strong performance in Tokyo and moderate gains in Seoul as well as Hong Kong characterise the stock market picture in East Asia on Wednesday. In Shanghai, the market barometer is just in the red. The fact that the rating agency Moody's has lowered China's credit rating outlook to negative due to the meagre economic recovery is having a dampening effect here. The Nikkei index in Tokyo rose by 1.9 per cent to 33,396 points. Among the individual stocks in Hong Kong, Swire Pacific (+145.4%) and Wuxi Biologics (+5.8%) benefited from share buyback plans. Wuxi also recovered to some extent from the massive losses of the previous days following an outlook cut. Lenovo (+7.8%) recovered after its share price had fallen markedly the previous day.

Long-dated U.S. government debt yields fell to three-month lows on Tuesday amid expectations that major central banks will cut rates in 2024 and the possibility of a swifter-than-expected U.S. economic slowdown. The 10-year Treasury note yield dropped by 7 basis points to 4.190%. The 2-year Treasury note yield shed 8 basis points to 4.575%.

Price target Julius Baer: UBS downgrades to CHF 56 (76) - Buy
Target price Sandoz: JP Morgan upgrades to 31.50 (28.50) CHF - Overweight
Price target Clariant: Jefferies lowers to CHF 16 (17) - Buy

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