Disney said it is close to making its streaming business profitable, but its shares fell about 9,5% Tuesday after the company reported a loss and projected earnings growth that narrowly missed Wall Street expectations. The media company’s streaming unit lost $18 million in the March quarter, an improvement from a $659 million loss in the year-earlier quarter. Chief Executive Bob Iger said the company is on track to achieve streaming profitability in the final quarter of the fiscal year that ends in September. The company’s flagship Disney+ streaming service - home to movies such as “Wish” and TV shows including “Bluey” - added more than six million customers in the March quarter, meeting a rare subscriber forecast that it provided to investors in February. Disney raised its guidance for full-year adjusted earnings per share growth to 25%, below Wall Street expectations of 25.3%.

The Switzerland market ended on a buoyant note on Tuesday, with strong results and optimism about interest rate cuts triggering sustained buying at several counters. The benchmark SMI, which kept moving higher after a firm start, ended with a gain of 183.31 points or 1.64% at 11,512.97, a few points off the day's high of 11,526.26. UBS Group shares climbed about 7.6% as the lender returned to profit after two loss-making quarters. The lender reported a net profit of US$1,755 million for the first-quarter, compared to a net loss of US$279 million in the preceding quarter. In the quarter ended March 2023, the lender had posted a net profit of US$1,029 million. Geberit climbed 4.7%. Givaudan, Novartis, Partners Group, SIG Group, Roche Holdings, Sonova, Sika, Straumann Holdings and Lindt Spruengli gained 1.4 to 2.1%. Zurich Insurance Group, Alcon, Swiss Life Holding, Julius Baer, Logitech International, Swiss Re and Nestle also posted strong gains. Sandoz Group ended down by 2.52%. Swatch Group ended modestly lower, while SGS ended flat.

European stocks closed notably higher on Tuesday, lifted by some strong earnings updates, encouraging economic data, and optimism about interest rate cuts by some major central banks in the second quarter of the year. The pan European Stoxx 600 climbed 1.14%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 gained 1.22%, Germany's DAX advanced 1.4% and France's CAC 40 ended 0.99% up. Switzerland's SMI ended up by 1.64%. Among other markets in Europe, Austrial, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Turkiye closed with strong gains. Finland and Norway ended modestly higher, while Iceland, Poland and Russia closed weak. In the UK market, DCC, SSE, Barclays Group, Persimmon, Fresnillo, Experian, Weir Group, Flutter Entertainment and Lloyds Banking gained 3 to 4.5%. Barratt Developments, Land Securities and Rentokil advanced nearly 3%. Glencore, JD Sports Fashion, Spirax-Sarco Engineering, RS Group, Severn Trent, Coca-Cola, Legal & General and Howden Joinery were among the other major gainers in the market. EasyJet dropped nearly 6%. Burberry Group and Melrose Industries lost 3.5% and 2.05%, respectively. BP drifted down 1.3% and Smith (DS) ended lower by 1%. In the German market, Infineon soared nearly 13% despite cutting its revenue forecast in the current fiscal year. Zalando gained about 8.5%. The online fashion retailer backed its full-year guidance after returning to growth in the first quarter. Covestro climbed about 3.5%. Deutsche Bank, Symrise, E.ON, Commerzbank, RWE, Bayer, SAP, Continental, Deutsche Boerse, Mercedes-Benz, Munich RE and Vonovia gained 1.4 to 2.5%. Fresenius Medical Care tumbled more than 6%. Rheinmetall ended 2.5% down. Hannover Rueck and Adidas also ended notably lower. In the French market, Essilor, STMicroElectronics, Pernod Ricard, Societe Generale, Dassault Systemes and BNP Paribas gained 2 to 3.1%.

Stocks saw modest strength throughout much of the trading session on Tuesday but gave back ground in afternoon trading to end the day little changed. The Dow still managed to close higher for the fifth consecutive, reaching its best closing level in a month. The major averages ended the day narrowly mixed. While the Nasdaq edged down 16.69 points or 0.1 percent to 16,332.56, the Dow crept up 31.99 points or 0.1 percent to 38,884.26 and the S&P 500 inched up 6.96 points or 0.1 percent to 5,187.70. The modest strength seen for most of the stock came as stocks continued to benefit from renewed optimism about the outlook for interest rates. Relatively dovish comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell combined with weaker-than-expected job growth in April have largely eliminated short-lived concerns the Fed might actually consider raising rates. Among individual stocks, shares of Disney (DIS) fell sharply even though the entertainment giant reported better than expected fiscal third quarter earnings. Most of the major sectors ended the day showing only modest moves, contributing to the lackluster close by the broader markets. Airline stocks showed a substantial move to the downside, however, with the NYSE Arca Airline Index tumbling by 2.7 percent. Considerable weakness also emerged among computer hardware stocks, as reflected by the 1.1 percent loss posted by the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index. On the other hand, utilities stocks turned in a strong performance on the day, driving the Dow Jones Utility Average up by 1.3 percent.

Consolidation is the motto on the stock markets in East Asia and Australia on Wednesday. Only in Sydney is the trend holding up well. The outlier is Tokyo, where there is by far the most activity. The Nikkei index fell by 1.5 per cent to 38,2680 points. Participants there are reporting caution ahead of the quarterly figures from Toyota and other important companies such as Itochu and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. In the run-up, Toyota is down 1.0 per cent and Mitsubishi Heavy 2.7 per cent. The trading house Itochu has meanwhile presented its figures and the share price falls by 1.5 per cent.

In the U.S. bond market, treasuries moved modestly higher, extending the upward trend seen over the past several sessions. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, dipped 2.6 basis points to 4.463 percent.

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