Saudi Arabia is poised to raise more than $11.2 billion from the sale of shares in its crown jewel, oil giant Aramco, generating fresh cash for the country's efforts to diversify its economy beyond oil. The country and its de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, face near-term pressure to fund a slew of megaprojects including a new city and a global airline. The country supersized a $12 billion debt sale earlier this year and has transferred billions from its foreign-currency reserves to its sovereign-wealth fund. Selling shares in Aramco, the world's most valuable oil company, is both financially important and highly symbolic for the kingdom. Oil sits at the heart of its economy, supplying much of the government's finances and giving the country outsize geopolitical power. Selling off a piece of the state-controlled company signals the country's plans to find new sources of economic growth.

The Switzerland market ended slightly higher on Friday after a choppy session, as investors largely refrained from making significant moves. The benchmark SMI, which stayed in the red for much of the session till a little past mid afternoon, ended the day with a small gain of 13.51 points or 0.11% at 12,254.76. Roche GS shares climbed about 1.9%. Sandoz Group gained 1.67%, while SIG Group, Lindt & Spruengli, Richemont, Swiss Re, Holcim and Alcon posted modest gains. Partners Group, Lonza Group and Straumann Holding lost 1.6%, 1.2% and 1.06%, respectively. Sika, Geberit, Swisscom, Swatch Group and Swiss Life Holding gained 0.5 to 1%. Temenos Group shares rallied 5.1%. Flughafen Zurich climbed 1.88%. Ams OSRAM AG, Helvetia and Baloise Holding posted moderate gains.

European stocks closed lower on Friday as the euphoria over an interest rate cut by the European Central Bank subsided a bit, and expectations of an early interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve faded a bit after data showed a much stronger than expected growth in U.S. non-farm payroll employment in May. The pan European Stoxx 600 ended down 0.22%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 and France's CAC 40 both closed lower by 0.48%, and Germany's DAX drifted down 0.51%, while Switzerland's SMI edged up 0.11%. Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Turkiye ended weak. Denmark, Greece, Iceland, Norway, Russia and Sweden closed lower, while Netherlands ended flat. Fresnillo dropped about 5.7%. Prudential, ICG, Persimmon, Antofagasta, Kingfisher, Segro, Howden Joinery, Rentokil Initial, Experian, EasyJet, Unite Group and JD Sports Fashion lost 2 to 4.1%. Compass Group, Pearson, Diploma, Whitbread, IMI, Weir Group, National Grid and Convatec Group posted gains. In the German market, Vonovia tumbled more than 7%. Daimler Truck Holding ended down 4.2% and Zalando ended lower by about 3%. Sartorius, RWE, E.ON, Bayer and Mercedes Benz also ended notably lower. Infineon rallied nearly 4%. Covestro gained about 2.5%, while Commerzbank, Beiersdorf and Rheinmetall gained 1.2 to 2%. In the French market, Orange ended lower by about 4%. Engie, Vinci, Airbus Group, Bouygues, Veolia, Vivendi, Pernod Ricard, Dassault Systemes, Renault, Unibail Rodamco, Saint-Gobain and Safran lost 1 to 3%. On the economic front, euro area economy expanded as initially expected in the first quarter, underpinned by household consumption and exports, latest data from the statistical office Eurostat showed. The seasonally adjusted GDP grew 0.3% from the fourth quarter, when output declined 0.1%. GDP increased by 0.4% year-on-year in the euro area after a revised 0.2% growth in the previous three months.

Stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading day on Friday, extending the lackluster performance seen during Thursday's session. The major averages spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before closing modestly lower. After reaching a new record intraday high in early afternoon trading, the S&P 500 ended the day down 5.97 points or 0.1 percent at 5,346.99. The Dow also dipped 87.18 points or 0.2 percent to 38,798.99, while the Nasdaq slipped 39.99 points or 0.2 percent to 17,133.13. For the week, the Nasdaq surged by 2.4 percent and the S&P 500 jumped by 1.3 percent. The narrower Dow posted a more modest gain, rising by 0.3 percent. The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders reacted to the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report. The report showed employment jumped by much more than expected in May but also showed an unexpected uptick in the unemployment rate. The Labor Department said non-farm payroll employment surged by 272,000 jobs in May after climbing by a downwardly revised 165,000 jobs in April. While most of the major sectors showed only modest moves, gold stocks saw substantial weakness, resulting in a 6.6 percent nosedive by the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index. The sell-off by gold stocks came amid a steep drop by the price of the precious metal. Steel stocks also showed a significant move to the downside on the day, dragging the NYSE Arca Steel Index down by 1.9 percent to a six-month closing low. Considerable weakness was also visible among interest rate-sensitive telecom stocks, as reflected by the 1.8 percent loss posted by the NYSE Arca North American Telecom Index.

There is no uniform trend on the Asian stock exchanges on Monday. The markets in Shanghai and Hong Kong are closed due to the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival, the market in Sydney due to the King's birthday. In Tokyo, prices are rising, in Korea, Singapore and Malaysia they are falling. In India, the market is more or less treading water.

In the U.S. bond market, treasuries have moved sharply lower in reaction to the stronger than expected monthly jobs data. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 14.3 basis points at 4.424 percent.

UBS lowers Remy Cointreau target o EUR 93 (100) – Neutral
UBS lowers Endesa to Neutral (Buy) – Target EUR 19.60 (19.20)
Deutsche Bank lowers Diageo target to 2,300 (2,400) p – Sell

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