Amazon becomes only the fifth U.S. company to secure $2 trillion market cap. That lifted the Nasdaq to a 0.5% advance. After all the recent attention on Nvidia Corp.’s market-capitalization milestones, now it’s Amazon.com Inc.’s time to shine. The e-commerce company crossed the $2 trillion market-capitalization threshold Wednesday, becoming only the fifth U.S. company to close at or above that level. Amazon’s stock AMZN was up 3.9% in Wednesday action to close at $193.61. Its ending market value was $2.015 trillion. Only Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp., Nvidia and Alphabet Inc. can also call themselves members of the $2 trillion club, and all four remain in it today, with all but Alphabet now also above the $3 trillion level.

After staying positive till about an hour past noon, the Swiss market dropped into negative territory on Wednesday, and eventually ended the day's session moderately lower. Data showing a drop in Swiss investors' sentiment, caution ahead of some crucial economic data from the U.S. and uncertainty about Fed interest rates weighed on stocks. The benchmark SMI, which advanced to 12,163.23 around mid morning, ended the day with a loss of 70.59 points or 0.58% at 12,015.72. Lindt & Spruengli lost about 3%. Richemont ended down by 1.52% amid speculation about a potential takeover of the company after Bernard Arnault, founder and chief executive of French luxury group LVMH, reportedly acquired a small personal stake in Richemont. Roche Holding, Nestle and Zurich Insurance ended lower by 1 to 1.52%. Swatch Group declined nearly 1%. Swiss Re, UBS Group, Schindler Ps, Partners Group, Julius Baer, Swisscom and Logitech International also ended weak. Straumann Holding climbed about 2.75%. Sonova, Sika, SIG Group and Kuehne & Nagel gained 1 to 1.25%. VAT Group and Lonza Group ended higher by 0.8% and 0.56%, respectively. In economic news, a report from UBS & CFA Society said the Swiss investors' sentiment index fell by 0.7 points from the previous month to 17.5 in May, down from a two-and-a-half-year high of 18.2 in April.

European stocks failed to hold early gains and drifted lower on Wednesday as investors chose to lighten commitments ahead of some crucial economic data from the U.S., including a report on personal income & spending, and amid uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates. Some developments on the corporate front aided the markets early on in the session, but the mood turned cautious around noon. Hawkish comments from some Fed officials, and uncertainty on the political front weighed on sentiment. The pan European Stoxx 600 ended down 0.56%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 settled lower by 0.27%, Germany's DAX edged down 0.12%, and France's CAC 40 closed down by 0.69%. Switzerland's SMI drifted down 0.58%. Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Turkiye ended weak. Russia and Sweden closed higher, while Norway ended flat. In the UK market, Smurfit Kappa Group, Entain, Land Securities, Imperial Brands, Phoenix Group Holdings, Frasers Group, Compass Group, Vodafone Group, Easyjet, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, Next, Admiral Group, Mondi, Burberry Group and Segro lost 1 to 2.2%. Convatec Group, Marks & Spencer, Centrica, Scottish Mortgage, Associated British Foods, Diploma and Sage Group gained 1 to 2%. Deliveroo gained about 1.2% after reports of takeover interest from U.S. rival DoorDash. Gelion Plc shares surged 54% after the Anglo-Australian battery innovator said it has signed a Joint Development Agreement with Glencore International AG, a diversified resource company. In the German market, BMW, BASF, Continental, Merck, Qiagen, RWE, Brenntag, Rheinmetall and Zalando lost 1 to 2.5%. Volkswagen ended lower by about 1.7% after the automaker announced $5 billion investment in Rivian, the American EV maker, in a joint venture.

A climb in technology behemoths pushed the Nasdaq Composite up for a second consecutive session. Amazon. com shares rose 3.9% to a record, making it the fifth U.S. company to cross a $2 trillion valuation. Apple added 2%, while Meta gained 0.5%. That lifted the Nasdaq to a 0.5% advance The S&P 500 inched up 0.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose less than 0.1%. Stocks wavered for much of the day, recording muted moves and continuing a stretch of calm that has persisted for much of the year. The S&P 500 hasn’t recorded a one-day decline of at least 2% in 338 days, the longest stretch since 2018, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Some investors said they expected the good times to keep rolling. “There aren’t a lot of macro issues today that are signaling we should take some risk off,” said Mark Stoeckle, an independent director at Nikko Asset Management Group. Investors will be closely parsing data later this week on spending and the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge for clues on the pace of price increases. Recent data has indicated that inflation is steadily falling, helping give stocks a boost. Major indexes have diverged in recent sessions, with the Dow and Nasdaq often moving in different directions over the past week as investors have reshuffled their bets. That has led to some big stock-market rotations under the surface. This dynamic was on display in trading Wednesday, with the Dow and S&P 500 wavering at times even as the Nasdaq pushed higher. In corporate news, FedEx shares jumped more than 15% after the delivery company posted stronger-than-expected revenue. Rivian stock surged more than 20% after Volkswagen said it planned to invest up to $5 billion in the EV maker.

Despite a slightly positive lead from Wall Street, the stock markets in East Asia and Australia saw a mixed downward trend on Thursday. Losses ranged from 0.5 per cent in Shanghai to 2.0 per cent in Hong Kong. The Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo ended its recent winning streak and fell by 1.0 per cent to 39,258 points.

The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose to 4.315%.

HSBC raises H&M to SEK 200 (175) – Hold
Barclays lowers LVMH to EUR 915 (937) – Overweight
JP Morgan lowers Delivery Hero to EUR 39 (44) – Overweight

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