The solar company Meyer Burger is planning to secure around 200 million Swiss francs in fresh funds via a capital increase to finance its planned expansion in the USA. The company has now published the details. Meyer Burger plans to issue up to 20,144,423,886 new shares at a subscription price of CHF 0.01 per share. The subscription ratio for existing shareholders has been set at 28 new shares for every 5 existing shares. The subscription rights can be traded from March 20 to 26, and the final amount of the transaction will be announced on April 3. Sentis Capital, the largest shareholder, and D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments (DESRI), the largest customer, will also participate in the rights issue, according to a press release issued on Monday.

Despite a few brief spells in positive territory during the course of the day's session, the Swiss market ended on a weak note on Friday as rising concerns about inflation and uncertainty about interest rate moves by the Federal Reserve weighed on sentiment. The benchmark SMI ended the session with a loss of 44.57 points or 0.38% at 11,676.13, the day's low. The index advanced to 11,761.03 in early trades. Sonova, down 6.39%, was the biggest loser in the SMI index. Lonza Group ended nearly 2% down. Alcon, Richemont and Novartis ended lower by 1.79%, 1.62%, and 1.34%, respectively. Sika, Roche Holding and Partners Group ended with moderate losses. Swisscom shares rallied nearly 5% after British telecom major Vodafone Group Plc announced its binding agreement to sell Vodafone Italy to Swisscom AG for an enterprise value of 8 billion euros. UBS Group gained 1.33%, while Swiss Life Holding, Geberit, Logitech International and Givaudan gained 0.7 to 1.01%. Swiss Re and Kuehne & Nagel posted modest gains. In the Mid Price index, Julius Baer, Straumann Holding, VAT Group and BKW ended down 1.55 to 2%. SGS, Ems Chemie Holding, ams OSRAM AG, Sandos and Georg Fischer also ended notably lower. Meyer Burger Tech gained about 3.4%, recovering a bit from recent losses. Avolta, Galenica Sante, Swiss Prime Site, SIG Group, Flughafen Zurich, Adecco and Clariant also ended with strong gains.

The major European markets failed to hold early gains and closed lower on Friday, weighed down by concerns about inflation, and caution ahead of monetary policy announcements by the Federal Reserve and Bank of England. The pan European Stoxx 600 ended down 0.32%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 drifted down 0.15% and Germany's DAX edged down 0.03%. France's CAC 40 crept up 0.04%, while Switzerland's SMI ended down by 0.38%. Among other markets in Europe, Belgium, Denmark, Iceland, Netherlands, Poland and Turkiye closed weak. Austria, Greece, Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Spain and Sweden ended higher, while Finland closed flat. After recent data on consumer price and producer price inflation in the U.S., the CMW FedWatch Tool says the probability of the Fed leaving the policy rate unchanged at June meeting climbed from 25% to 40%. In European economic news today, the INSEE said the French consumer price inflation eased slightly less than initial estimated in February, softening marginally to 3% from 3.1% in the prior month. Inflation was 2.9% according to initial estimate. Meanwhile, EU-harmonized inflation slowed to 3.2% in February from 3.4% in January. In the UK market, Reckitt Benckiser tanked nearly 16% before recovering some lost ground. The stock fell to its lowest level in about a decade after an Illinois jury ordered the company's unit Mead Johnson to pay $60 million to the mother of a premature baby who died of an intestinal disease after being fed Enfamil. The company said today that it would pursue all options to have the verdict overturned. Intertek, GlaxoSmithKline, Smith & Nephew, Halma, The Sage Group and British American Tobacco also ended notably lower.

With traders looking ahead to next week's Federal Reserve meeting, stocks moved mostly lower over the course of the trading session on Friday. With the downward move, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 closed lower for the third straight day. The major averages finished the day off their worst levels but still firmly negative. The Nasdaq slumped 155.36 points or 1.0 percent to 15,973.17, the S&P 500 slid 33.39 points or 0.7 percent to 5,117.09 and the Dow fell 190.89 points or 0.5 percent to 38,714.77. For the week, the tech-heavy Nasdaq declined by 0.7 percent, while the S&P 500 edged down by 0.1 percent and the Dow was nearly unchanged. The weakness on Wall Street partly reflected concerns about the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Fed's monetary policy meeting next week. On the U.S. economic front, a report released by the Labor Department showed import prices in the U.S. increased in line with economist estimates in the month of February. The Labor Department said import prices rose by 0.3 percent in February after climbing by 0.8 percent in January. The uptick matched expectations. Meanwhile, the report said export prices advanced by 0.8 percent in February following an upwardly revised 0.9 percent increase in January. Software stocks saw substantial weakness on the day, with the Dow Jones U.S. Software Index plunging by 2.7 percent after ending Thursday's session at its best closing level in over a month. Adobe led the sector lower, plummeting by 13.7 percent after reporting better than expected fiscal first quarter results but providing disappointing revenue guidance for the current quarter.

Led by a rally in Japan, the Asian and Australian stock markets posted mostly moderate gains in late trading on Monday. The central bank decisions in the USA and Japan are at the center of investor interest. While the US Federal Reserve is likely to loosen its monetary policy reins over the course of the year, the opposite is on the agenda in Japan. Although a clear majority believes that the Japanese central bank will take the first steps towards exiting its ultra-loose monetary policy on Tuesday, there are still doubts on the market as to whether this might not happen until April.

In the U.S. bond market, treasuries showed a lack of direction over the course of the session before closing roughly flat. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, crept up by less than a basis point to 4.304 percent.

UBS lowers Sonova to Sell (Neutral) – Target CHF 260 (225)
UBS raises Voestalpine target to EUR 28 (27) – Neutral
HSBC raises Volkswagen target to EUR 133 (130) – Hold

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