Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Thursday the launch of social media app Threads in the European Union (EU), just over five months after its launch in other parts of the world, including the United States. 'Today we're opening Threads to more countries in Europe. Welcome everyone,' Zuckerberg wrote in a Threads post. The delay in launching Threads in the EU was said to be due to concerns over compliance with the Digital Markets Act, which imposes strict rules on major internet companies. Meta has now ensured compliance with regulations to avoid any potential violations. Threads became available on both Apple and Android app stores in 100 countries when it was launched on July 5 and made a remarkable debut with over 30 million sign-ups within just a few hours of its launch. It is referred by some as a potential 'Twitter killer' or now 'X killer.' Threads was available only for mobile devices at launch, but it has now rolled out a web version on August 22. With numerous X users flocking away from the platform following recent changes implemented by Elon Musk, Zuckerberg seized the opportunity and created Threads. Currently, Threads holds the title of the most downloaded free app in the United States on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, according to Sensor Tower data.

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Despite staying well above the flat line for much of the day's trading session, the Swiss market ended just marginally up on Thursday as stocks turned a bit subdued past mid afternoon. Investors digested the Swiss National Bank's interest rate decision, in addition to tracking the moves of several other central bank's including the Federal Reserve, for direction. The Swiss central bank kept its benchmark rate unchanged, as widely expected, with the bank's Governing Board, chaired by Thomas Jordan, deciding to hold the policy rate at 1.75%. Banks' sight deposits held at the SNB were remunerated at the SNB policy rate up to a certain threshold, and at 1.25% above this threshold, the bank said. The bank repeated that it is willing to be active in the foreign exchange market as necessary. The benchmark SMI, which climbed to 11,333.91 around noon, ended the session with a marginal gain of 21.04 points or 0.19% at 11,209.95, recovering from a low of 11,162.57. Sika, up 7.32%, was the top gainer in the SMI index. Geberit rallied 6.25%. Richemont, UBS Group and Sonova gained 4.11%, 3.76% and 3.72%, respectively. Partners Group, Kuehne & Nagel, Alcon and Lonza Group climbed 1.8 to 3%. ABB and Logitech International also ended notably higher.

European stocks closed on a firm note on Thursday with investors reacting positively to the monetary policy announcements from the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the European Central Bank. The ECB lowered its inflation projections for this year and next. The BoE left its benchmark rate unchanged at a 15-year high for the third straight time and retained its hawkish bias in contrast to the stance of its peer U.S. Federal Reserve that hinted at three rate cuts next year. The BoE's announcement was arguably more notable despite offering no forecasts and there being no press conference after. The voting was unchanged from the last meeting, with three policymakers backing a rate hike, very much running counter to the message from the Fed last night,' says Craig Erlam, Senior Market Analyst at OANDA, UK & EMEA. The pan European Stoxx 600 climbed 0.87%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 gained 1.33%, France's CAC 40 ended 0.59% up, and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 edged down 0.08%. Switzerland's SMI ended higher by 0.19%. Among other markets in Austria, Belgium, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Turkiye ended with sharp to moderate gains. Denmark, Greece and Netherlands closed modestly higher, while Russia ended weak. In the UK market, Ashtead Group, Entain, Croda International, Anglo American Plc, British Land Company, Kingfisher and Land Securities climbed 6.6 to 9%. Barclays Group, Just Eat Takeaway.com, Spirax-Sarco Engineering, Persimmon, Segro, Schrodders, Hargreaves Lansdown, Carnival, Burberry Group, WPP, Antofagasta, Glencore, Smurfit Kappa Group, ITV and Phoneix Holdings surged 4 to 5%.

Stocks extended their year-end rally. The S&P 500 rose 0.3%, Nasdaq Composite added 0.2%, Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.4%, closing at a new record high. Investors have recently been betting that the Fed will pivot to lowering interest rates next year, and the central bank helped confirm that view Thursday by forecasting three rate cuts in 2024. Amid the “everything rally” this week, some Wall Street strategists are warning that investors are pricing in far steeper interest rate cuts next year than the Fed has actually forecast. “The market is pricing in too fast a pace of cuts,” said Solita Marcelli, chief investment officer for the Americas at UBS Global Wealth Management. “We think the experience of this rate cycle is that it pays to listen to the Fed.” Investor euphoria was on display in the market Thursday. Shares of Carvana —the debt-laden online used-car seller that has been known as a meme stock—jumped 12% and are now up nearly 1,000% this year. Cathie Wood’s ARK exchange-traded fund, which invests largely in unprofitable technology companies, jumped 3.7%. Some of the large tech companies that have powered stock indexes for most of 2023 sagged on Thursday, with Microsoft shedding more than 2%.

The end of the week on the stock markets in East Asia is looking friendly, while the Sydney stock market has already closed up 0.9 per cent, its biggest weekly gain since July. The Hong Kong stock market is the outlier on the upside. There, the HSI shot up by 3 per cent, with property shares, among others, rising sharply. Participants are talking about favourable economic data, pointing in particular to the fact that Beijing and Shanghai made it easier to buy private property the previous day.

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