Boeing found cracks in the structure of its 777X jetliner in initial test flights, the latest setback for the long-delayed airplane. The company said it would ground its four-plane test fleet while it replaces the faulty component and sorts out what went wrong. Boeing has orders for 540 of the new aircraft that it plans to start delivering in 2025. It is unclear what impact the issue could have on the plane’s launch date. Boeing unveiled the plane in 2013 and said it would start delivering the model in 2020. The company started flight-certification testing in July. “During scheduled maintenance, we identified a component that did not perform as designed,” the company said. “Our team is replacing the part and capturing any learnings from the component and will resume flight testing when ready.

The Swiss market ended marginally down on Tuesday despite trading higher till a couple of hours past noon. Investors digested the latest batch of economic data from the European region, and looked ahead to the release of Fed minutes, and Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech at Jackson Hole, due on Wednesday and Friday, respectively. The benchmark SMI, which climbed to 12,324.15 around late morning, ended the session with a marginal loss of 8.68 points or 0.07% at 12,266.56, slightly off the day's low. Swatch Group ended down 2.43%. Julius Baer, SIG Group, Nestle and Lindt & Spruengli lost 0.9 to 1.25%. Straumann Holding ended 0.79% down. Sonova, Partners Group, Givaudan and Kuehne & Nagel ended modestly lower. Lonza Group climbed about 1.2%. Swiss Re gained 1.05%, while VAT Group and Schindler Ps gained 0.71% and 0.52%, respectively. Roche Holding, Logitech International, Sika and Roche GS also closed higher. In economic news, Switzerland's foreign trade surplus decreased in July amid a continued fall in exports, data from the Federal Customs Administration showed. In real terms, exports declined 1.8% over the month, faster than the 0.2% fall in June. Meanwhile, imports remained flat in July, versus a 0.8% increase in June.

European markets ended lower on Tuesday, weighed down mostly by losses in the energy sector. The mood remained a bit cautious amid uncertainty about the outlook for economic growth in the region, and possible interest rate moves by major central banks. Investors awaited the minutes from the Federal Reserve's most recent monetary policy meeting, and Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium, due later in the week. Sweden's central bank lowered its key policy rate by a quarter-point as inflation continued to ease amid weakening growth prospects, and signaled as much as three more interest reductions this year. The Executive Board of Riksbank decided to cut the policy rate by 25 basis points to 3.5%. Previously, the bank had lowered its policy rate in May, which was the first cut since February 2016. The pan European Stoxx 600 ended down 0.45%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 dropped 1%, Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 ended lower by 0.35% and 0.22%, respectively. Switzerland's SMI edged down 0.07%.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and Turkiye ended weak. Russia and Spain edged down marginally, while Iceland closed higher. In the UK market, BT Group dropped nearly 6.5%. JD Sports Fashion ended down 4.4%. Shell, BP, Segro, Ashtead Group, Frasers Group, Airtel Africa, Vodafone Group, B&M European Value Retail, Whitbread, BAE Systems, Melrose Industries, Marks & Spencer and HSBC Holdings lost 1.9 to 3%. EasyJet, Endeavour Mining and Taylor Wimpey closed higher by 1 to 1.3%. In the German market, Siemens Energy, Rheinmetall, Bayer and Sartorius lost 2.4 to 3.5%. Fresenius Medical Care, Deutsche Bank, Adidas, Continental and Commerzbank lost 1.2 to 2%.

After trending higher over the past several sessions, stock showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading day on Tuesday. The major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before eventually ending the day modestly lower. The major averages finished the session well off their worst levels of the day but still in the red. The Dow dipped 61.56 points or 0.2 percent to 40,834.97, the Nasdaq fell 59.83 points or 0.3 percent to 17,816.94 and the S&P 500 slipped 11.13 points or 0.2 percent to 5,597.12. The modestly lower close on Wall Street may partly have reflected profit taking following the recent upward trend on Wall Street, which saw the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 close higher for eight consecutive sessions. Trading activity remained relatively subdued, however, as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of key events later this week that could impact the outlook for interest rates. Substantial weakness among energy stocks weighed on the markets, with the Philadelphia Oil Service Index and the NYSE Arca Oil Index plunging by 3.4 percent and 2.8 percent, respectively. The weakness among energy stocks came as the price of crude oil is seeing further downside after moving sharply lower over the two previous sessions. Considerable weakness was also visible among steel stocks, as reflected by the 1.4 percent loss posted by the NYSE Arca Steel Index. Semiconductor, natural gas and brokerage stocks also saw notable weakness, while networking stocks showed a strong move to the upside on the day.

The stock markets in East Asia followed Wall Street on Wednesday and consolidated the latest series of gains, some of which lasted eight days. In Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai and Sydney, the trend is just about unchanged to slightly lower, with the Japanese Nikkei-225 losing 0.4 per cent to 37,909 points.

In the U.S. bond market, treasuries extended the upward move seen over the two previous sessions. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, decreased by 4.9 basis points to 3.818 percent.

JP Morgan raises Zurich Insurance to CHF 440 (425) – Underweight
JP Morgan lowers Genmab to Neutral (Overweight) – 2,050 (2,500) DKK
Barclays lowers Henkel to 79 (80) EUR – Equalweight

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