Bitcoin surpassed $80,000 on Sunday for the first time in its history, boosted by the prospect of a regulatory easing favorable to digital currencies that could be put in place with Donald Trump's return to the White House. The leading digital currency by capitalization passed this threshold at around 12:00 GMT to reach a high of $80,116, before dropping back slightly. It had hit the $75,000 mark on Thursday, surpassing its record high of last March. Bitcoin is traded continuously, including on Sundays. Since the results of the US presidential election, its price has soared in unison with the dollar. During his election campaign, Donald Trump pledged to make the United States “the bitcoin and cryptocurrency capital of the world”.

The Swiss market closed notably lower on Friday on weak global cues as concerns about global economic growth and geopolitical tensions rendered the mood a bit bearish. The benchmark SMI, which was briefly up in positive territory at the start, retreated soon and spent the rest of the day's session in the red, and settled at 11,797.72 with a loss of 119.28 points. The index touched a low of 11,775.75 in the session. Swatch Group tumbled 7.75%. Richemont closed down 6.6% after posting a 20% drop in net profit to 1.73 billion euros in the first half of the year, from 2.16 billion euros a year ago. Adecco ended down 2.8% and Sika closed down 2.56%, while Straumann Holding, UBS Group and Logitech International lost 1.9 to 2.2%. Swiss Re, Roche Holding, Zurich Insurance, Swisscom, Julius Baer and Nestle closed lower by 0.6 to 1.1%. Lindt & Spruengli closed up by about 1.1%. SGS and Sonova, both closed higher by nearly 1%. Sandoz Group gained 0.73%. Alcon, VAT Group and Lonza Group posted modest gains.

European stocks closed weak on Friday with investors reacting to corporate earnings announcements, and assessing the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve's interest rate decisions. Weak commodity prices, geopolitical tensions, and the likely impact of Donald Trump's protectionist policies on global economy weighed on sentiment. Political turmoil in Germany hurt as well. The pan European Stoxx 600 ended down 0.65%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 closed down 0.84%, Germany's DAX settled lower by 0.76% and France's CAC 40 shed 1.17%, while Switzerland's SMI lost 1%. Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain and Sweden closed weak. In the UK market, Vistry Group shares tanked 15.5%. The British housebuilder announced today that it has revised down its expectations for annual adjusted profit before tax because of issues in its South Division, adjustments in other regions, and reduced expectations for completions. Antofagasta ended down 6.6%. Glencore, Rio Tinto, Marks & Spencer, Prudential and Anglo American Plc lost 4.3 to 5%. IAG rallied more than 7% after reporting a bigger-than-expected quarterly profit. Endeavour Mining climbed 4.25%. AstraZenecal gained about 2% after the Phase III WAYPOINT study of AstraZeneca and Amgen's Tezspire in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps met its both co-primary endpoints. IHG, BT Group, Pearson, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, Intertek Group, Entain, Relx, Unite Group and Segro gained 1 to 3%.

Extending the substantial rally seen over the past few sessions, stocks moved mostly higher over the course of the trading day on Friday. With the continued upward move, the major averages all reached new record closing highs. The major averages pulled back off their best levels going into the close but remained in positive territory. The Dow climbed 259.65 points or 0.6 percent to 43,988.99, the Nasdaq inched up 17.32 points or 0.1 percent to 19,286.78 and the S&P 500 rose 22.44 points or 0.4 percent to 5,995.54. For the week, the tech-heavy Nasdaq soared by 5.7 percent, while the S&P 500 and the Dow spiked by 4.7 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively. Stocks continued to benefit from a positive reaction to former President Donald Trump's decisive victory in the U.S. presidential election. Trump's return to the White House is expected to be positive for corporations and the U.S. economy, although there are some concerns about the effect planned tariff increases will have on inflation. Traders also continued to digest the Federal Reserve's widely expected decision on Thursday to lower interest rates by a quarter point. Paramount Global stock was inching lower on Friday after a so-so third-quarter earnings report. Streaming was the clear highlight for the media and entertainment company. The CBS and Paramount Pictures parent posted an adjusted profit of 49 cents a share, up from 30 cents a share a year ago, on sales of $6.73 billion. Analysts had expected earnings of 24 cents a share and sales of $6.94 billion, according to FactSet consensus estimates. Electric-vehicle start-up Rivian Automotive reported a wider-than-expected third-quarter loss, but the stock rose anyway. For the third quarter, Rivian reported a per-share loss of $1.08 from sales of $874 million.

Negative signs dominate the stock markets in East Asia and Australia at the start of the week. Strong leads from the US stock markets, which posted new record highs on Friday, fizzled out. Investors are disappointed by the latest Chinese economic stimulus package, traders explain the subdued mood. The Chinese inflation data published at the weekend also had a negative impact. Consumer prices rose more slowly than expected in October, while producer prices fell once again.

In the U.S. bond market, treasuries extended the notable rebound seen in the previous session. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, fell by 3.5 basis points to 4.306 percent.

UBS raises Burckhardt Compression to CHF 655 (579) – Neutral
JP Morgan raises Gea target to 39 (38.50) EUR/Underweight – Trader
HSBC raises Deutsche Telekom to EUR 33.50 (29.50) – Buy

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