Warren Buffett's investment holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, reported a 39 percent after-tax rise in first-quarter 2024 operating profit to a record $11.2 billion, boosted by strength in its property and casualty insurance business and higher investment income. Berkshire also reduced its massive stake in Apple by about 13 percent to 790 million shares in the first quarter, Dow Jones Newswires calculated based on information from Berkshire's quarterly report released in conjunction with the results. At the end of 2023, Berkshire held 905 million shares of the iPhone maker. The company bought back $2.6 billion worth of shares in the first quarter, down from $2.2 billion in the fourth quarter.

The Switzerland market ended on a firm note on Friday, after staying positive right through the day's session thanks to some encouraging earnings updates, and easing worries about the outlook for interest rates. The benchmark SMI, which climbed to a high of 11,335.26 around mid afternoon, ended the session at 11,272.95, gaining 63.32 points or 0.56%. VAT Group rallied 3.14%. Geberit gained nearly 3%, and Richemont advanced 2.85%. Sika, Julius Baer and Partners Group ended higher by 2.3%, 2% and 1.8%, respectively. Roche Holdings, Schindler Ps, Alcon, Swiss Life Holding, Alcon, SGS, Swatch Group, UBS Group, Sonova and Lonza Group gained 1 to 1.5%. ams OSRAM AG rallied about 5.2%. Georg Fischer gained nearly 3%. Baloise Holding, Meyer Burger Tech, Avolta and Barry Callebaut also ended notably higher. Logitech International, Novartis and Straumann Holding ended down 0.9 to 1.1%. Lindt & Spruengli drifted down 0.66%. The market breadth was positive. Out of 227 stocks traded on the exchange, 122 stocks closed higher, and 84 stocks ended weak, while 21 stocks ended unchanged.

European stocks closed higher on Friday, reacting to corporate earnings updates, regional economic data, and U.S. non-farm payroll data for the month of April. Strong results from iPhone maker Apple Inc. and easing concerns about the outlook for interest rates contributed as well to the largely positive undertone in the markets. Data showing an increase in the U.S. unemployment rate fueled expectations the Fed will start easing its policy by the third quarter. European Central Bank policymaker Yannis Stournaras said he sees three rate cuts in 2024. Stournaras reportedly said in an interview that three rate cuts in 2024 is the more likely scenario after considering recent growth and inflation data. The pan European Stoxx 600 climbed 0.46%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100, Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 gained 0.51%, 0.59% and 0.54%, respectively. Switzerland's SMI ended 0.56% up. Among other markets in Europe, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Turkiye closed higher. Denmark, Iceland, Poland, Portugal and Spain ended weak, while Austria and Russia closed flat. In the UK market, Phoenix Group Holdings climbed nearly 6.5%. Berkeley Group Holdings, Persimmon, Taylor Wimpey, Barratt Developments, Prudential, Convatec Group and RightMove gained 3 to 5%. In the German market, Henkel climbed about 7.2%. Daimler Truck Holding dropped about 3.7% after reporting a decline in Q1 global sales.

Following the rally seen over the course of Thursday's session, stocks showed another strong move to the upside during trading on Friday. The major averages all moved sharply higher, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq leading the charge. The major averages moved roughly sideways after an early surge, remaining firmly positive. The Dow jumped 450.02 points or 1.2 percent to 38,675.68, the Nasdaq spiked 315.37 points or 2.0 percent to 16,156.33 and the S&P 500 shot up 63.59 points or 1.3 percent to 5,127.79. For the week, the S&P 500 climbed by 0.6 percent, while the Dow advanced by 1.1 percent and the Nasdaq jumped by 1.4 percent. The extended rally on Wall Street came following the release of a closely watched Labor Department showing employment in the U.S. increased by much less than expected in the month of April. The Labor Department said non-farm payroll employment climbed by 175,000 jobs in April after surging by an upwardly revised 315,000 jobs in March. Economists had expected employment to jump by 243,000 jobs compared to the spike of 303,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month. The report also showed the unemployment rate crept up to 3.9 percent in April from 3.8 percent in March. The unemployment rate was expected to remain unchanged. Positive sentiment was also generated in reaction to earnings news from Apple (AAPL), with the tech giant surging by 6.0 percent. Apple rallied after reporting better than expected fiscal second quarter results and announcing a $110 billion stock repurchase. Meanwhile, a separate report released by the Institute for Supply Management showed U.S. service sector activity unexpectedly contracted in the month of April. Semiconductor stocks turned in some of the market's best performances on the day, driving the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up by 2.4 percent.

Following the firm trend on Wall Street on Friday in response to the U.S. labour market data for April, which was favourable from a stock market perspective, the stock markets in East Asia also rose for the most part on Monday. In Sydney, the market barometer rose by 0.6 per cent, in Shanghai by 1 per cent and in Sinagpur by 0.3 per cent. Hong Kong is lagging somewhat behind, where the trend is only stable. In Tokyo and Seoul, there is no work at the start of the week due to public holidays.

In the U.S. bond market, treasuries gave background after an early rally but remained firmly positive. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, slid 7.1 basis points to 4.50 percent.

UBS raises Standard Chartered target to 840 (810) p – Buy
UBS raises Totalenergies target to EUR 74 (73) – Buy
HSBC raises Shell target to 3,025 (2,850) p – Buy

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