Walmart said it reached a deal to buy television maker Vizio for $2.3 billion, a major bet by the retail behemoth that it can make advertising revenue a significant part of its future. The deal gives Walmart access to more opportunities to sell advertising through the TVs that Vizio manufactures, as well as create entertainment for shoppers, the retailer said. News of a potential deal between Walmart and Vizio was first reported by The Wall Street Journal last week, sending Vizio’s stock higher. Buying Vizio gives Walmart access to a TV operating system, granting it access to more space to sell ads and viewership data as it is working to grow its advertising business. Walmart has spent years working to grow new avenues of profit beyond selling goods in stores and online. Walmart already has a large private-label electronics business through its Onn brand, which offers phone chargers, speakers and televisions. The Onn TVs run on operating systems from Roku. The deal is a response to both the changing nature of Walmart’s revenue model and the television business, said Seth Dallaire, chief revenue officer for Walmart U.S., who will manage Vizio after the acquisition.

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The Swiss stock market rose again on Tuesday. After a slight scare at the start of the session, the SMI took off, approaching the symbolic 10,500-point mark by just over 20 points at its high for the day. The results season resumed with a number of companies in the broader market. On the macroeconomic front, news remained scarce. The SMI ended with a gain of 0.51% at 11,456.96 points, with a high of 11,477.47 and a low of 11,375.53 at the start of the session. The SLI gained 0.27% to 1854.24 points and the SPI 0.32% to 14,947.78 points. Of the 30 leading stocks, 17 rose and 13 fell. The day's top performers were Swiss Re (+2.6%), Novartis (+1.4%) and Swiss Life (+1.3%). The Basel-based pharmaceuticals giant invested some €500 million in its production sites in Austria. Around €250 million of this was injected into the Kundl and Schaftenau plants respectively. The other two heavyweights Nestlé (+1.0%) and Roche (porter +0.3%, bon +0.1%) also gained ground. The Vevey-based giant publishes its annual results on Thursday, and analysts are forecasting organic growth of 7.3% for net profit of 12.15 billion Swiss francs.

European stocks turned in a relatively lackluster performance during trading on Tuesday, with the major market indexes finishing the day on opposite sides of the unchanged line. While the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.3 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the German DAX Index both edged down by 0.1 percent. The advance by French stocks came amidst strong corporate results announcement. However lingering anxiety ahead of the release of the ECB minutes limited gains. Specialty chemicals business Air Liquide surged after reporting a rise in net profit and sales that surpassed expectations. Meanwhile, the dip by the German DAX Index came as markets braced for the release of the ECB minutes as well as PMI, GDP and Business Climate readings later in the week. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged lower despite dovish comments from Governor Andrew Bailey and other officials of the Bank of England. 'Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey confirmed at a Treasury Select Committee meeting that UK interest rates could be cut before inflation hits the 2% target if the central bank wished to make such a move,' said Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell.

Stocks moved mostly lower during trading on Tuesday, extending the pullback seen during last Friday's session. The Nasdaq showed a notable move to the downside amid weakness among tech stocks. The major averages ended the day in negative territory but off their lows of the session. The Nasdaq slumped 144.87 points or 0.9 percent to 15,630.78, the S&P 500 fell 30.06 points or 0.6 percent to 4,975.51 and the Dow dipped 64.19 points or 0.2 percent to 38,563.80. The weakness on Wall Street partly reflected ongoing anxiety about the outlook for interest rates following last week's hotter-than-expectation inflation data. CME Group's FedWatch Tool is indicating just an 8.5 percent chance the Federal Reserve will lower rates by a quarter point in March, while the chances of a quarter point rate cut in early May have fallen to 33.8 percent. The Fed may provide additional insight into the outlook for interest rates with the release of the minutes of its latest monetary policy meeting on Wednesday. Steel stocks showed a significant move to the downside, with the NYSE Arca Steel Index tumbling by 1.9 percent after ending last Friday's trading at its best closing level in well over a month. Significant weakness was also visible among semiconductor stocks, as reflected by the 1.6 percent loss posted by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index. Shares of Nvidia (NVDA) plunged by 4.4 percent ahead of the release of the chipmaker's quarterly results after the close of trading on Wednesday. Tobacco, oil producer and transportation stocks also saw notable weakness, moving lower along with most of the other major sectors.

While most of the Asian and Australian stock exchanges are digesting the weak U.S. data on Wednesday, the Chinese stock exchanges are very firm. In Tokyo, the Nikkei-225 fell by 0.2 per cent to 38,279 points.

In the U.S. bond market, treasuries moved modestly back to the upside after coming under pressure last Friday. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, dipped 2.0 basis points to 4.725 percent.

UBS lowers Iberdrola target to 12 (12.20) EUR – Buy
UBS raises Deutsche Börse target to 215 (210) EUR – Buy
HSBC lowers Forvia target to EUR 19 (21) – Buy

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