Procter & Gamble posted fiscal second-quarter earnings that topped Wall Street's expectations and raised the low end of its full-year profit forecast. The Cincinnati consumer-products giant reported adjusted earnings of $1.84 a share, for the quarter ended Dec. 31, up from $1.59 a share a year earlier and ahead of the $1.70 a share that analysts polled by FactSet, on average, were expecting. Sales rose 3% to $21.44 billion, a tad below the $21.48 billion Wall Street had penciled in, while organic sales, which exclude the impacts of foreign exchange, acquisitions and divestitures, rose 4%. P&G said it now expects fiscal 2024 adjusted per-share earnings growth of 8%-9%, equating to a range of $6.37 to $6.43 a share, compared with a prior growth forecast of 6% to 9%. Analysts are looking for a full-year adjusted profit of $6.41 a share. The company maintained its forecast for full-year sales growth of 2% to 4% and organic sales growth of 4% to 5%.

The Switzerland market ended notably lower on Tuesday as stocks kept drifting lower and lower during the day's session after opening flat. A lack of positive triggers rendered the mood cautious. The benchmark SMI ended with a loss of 126.09 points or 1.12% at 11,149.26, the day's low. Logitech International plunged 8.67% after saying it anticipates an annual sales decline of 6 - 7%. The company warned that a number of headwinds and uncertainties may impact its net sales throughout FY 2025. Alcon ended down 2.75%. Partners Group, Sonova, Givaudan, Kuehne & Nagel, Nestle, Roche Holding and Holcim lost 1.6 to 2.2%. Swiss Re declined 1.1%. Novartis, UBS Group and ABB ended lower by 0.8 to 1%. Richemont climbed 1.7%, and Sika ended higher by 1.21%. Lonza Group and Swiss Life Holding posted modest gains. In the Mid Price Index, Swatch Group ended down 4.56% after failing to hit the sales record predicted by its chief executive officer. BKW ended lower by 3%. PSP Swiss Property and VAT Group both closed lower by about 2.3%. Straumann Holding and Swiss Prime Site lost 2.2% and 2%, respectively. Belimo Holding, Flughafen Zurich, Julius Baer, Ems Chemie Holding and Galenica Sante also ended notably lower. Meyer Burger Tech soared 11.5%. ams OSRAM AG shares gained nearly 4%. Schindler Holding climbed 1.85% and SGS gained about 1.6%. Barry Callebaut, Clariant, Tecan Group and Schindler Ps ended higher by 1 to 1.3%.

European stocks retreated after a positive start Tuesday morning, and then stayed weak for much of the day's session before finally settling in negative territory, as investors were reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the European Central Bank's monetary policy announcement due later in the week. The ECB is widely expected to leave rates unchanged. The focus will be on the bank's statement for signals on when the central bank will consider its first interest-rate cut. A report showing an unexpected deterioration in the euro area consumer sentiment in the month of December weighed as well on sentiment. Preliminary data from a survey by the European Commission showed the flash consumer confidence index fell to -16.1 from -15.0 in January. Economists had expected the score to improve to -14.3. The pan European Stoxx 600 ended down 0.28%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 edged down 0.03%, Germany's DAX drifted down 0.34%, and France's CAC 40 ended lower by 0.34%, while, Switzerland's SMI dropped 1.12%. Other markets in the region ended mixed. Denmark, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Turkiye closed weak. Austria, Finland, Greece, Netherlands, Norway, Russia and Sweden ended higher, while Belgium and Iceland closed flat. Miners found support on reports that policymakers are considering fresh stimulus measures for China's economy and stock market. In the UK market, Admiral Group, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Compass Group, Unite Group, Bunzl, British American Tobacco, AstraZeneca, Centrica, Segro, Halma and Convatec Group lost 1 to 2.5%. Standard Chartered rallied nearly 5%. Ocado Group, Anglo American Plc, Prudential, WPP, Rio Tinto, Antofagasta, Endeavour Mining and Entain gained 2 to 3%. In the German market, HeidelbergCement ended nearly 3% down. Symrise, Allianz, Brenntag, Hannover Rueck, Vonovia, Qiagen, Fresenius and Covestro lost 1.2 to 2.2%. Zalando climbed nearly 6%, and Volkswagen gained about 5.5%. MTU Aero Engines advanced 4.2% and Siemens Energy gained about 3.7%. Porsche gained nearly 3%, while BASF, Mercedes-Benz and Puma ended higher by 1.5 to 2%.

Stocks turned in a relatively lackluster performance during trading on Tuesday, with the major averages bouncing back and forth across the unchanged after ending Monday's trading modestly higher. Despite the choppy trading, the S&P 500 reached a new record closing high. The major averages eventually ended the session narrowly mixed. While the Dow dipped 96.36 points or 0.3 percent to 37,905.45, the Nasdaq climbed 65.66 points or 0.4 percent to 15,425.94 and the S&P 500 rose 14.17 points or 0.3 percent to 4,864.60. The choppy trading on Wall Street partly reflected a mixed reaction to the latest earnings news from several big-name companies. The Dow pulled back off yesterday's record closing high amid a steep drop by shares of 3M (MMM), with the conglomerate plunging by 11.0 percent after reporting better than expected fourth quarter earnings but providing disappointing guidance. Healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) also moved to the downside despite reporting better than expected fourth quarter results. Meanwhile, shares of Verizon (VZ) moved sharply higher after the telecom giant reported fourth quarter results that exceeded analyst estimates on both the top and bottom lines. Streaming giant Netflix (NFLX) and chipmaker Texas Instruments (TXN) are among the companies due to report their quarterly results after the close of trading. Traders may also have been reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of several key U.S. economic reports in the coming days. United Airlines (UAL) helped lead the sector higher, spiking by 5.3 percent after reporting fourth quarter results that exceeded analyst estimates on both the top and bottom lines.

No uniform trend can be discerned on the stock markets in East Asia at midweek. Fears of interest rate hikes are weighing on the Japanese stock market. In Shanghai, doubts about a sustainable recovery of the domestic economy from the pandemic-related slump are weighing on share prices. Meanwhile, the stock market in Hong Kong is supported by price gains from heavyweight Alibaba.

In the U.S. bond market, treasuries moved back to the downside following the rebound seen on Monday. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, climbed 4.8 basis points to 4.142 percent.

Citi lowers he Porsche target AG to EUR 86 (90) – Neutral
UBS raises the Holcim target to CHF 66 (61) – Neutral
UBS lowers Geberit to Neutral (Buy) – Target CHF 520 (530)

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