Saudi Arabia’s national oil company Aramco said it expects to pay lower shareholder returns in 2025 after a fall in net profit last year. Saudi Arabian Oil Co., known as Aramco, said net income for 2024 fell to $106.2 billion from $121.3 billion in 2023. Aramco’s full-year dividend payout rose to $124.25 billion compared with $97.78 billion in 2023. However, the company expects total dividends of $85.4 billion to be declared in 2025. Aramco declared a base dividend of $21.1 billion for the fourth quarter, which is a 4.2% increase compared with the same period a year prior, it said. It expects this to be paid in the first quarter of 2025. It also announced a performance-linked dividend of $0.2 billion which is also to be paid in the first quarter. The company said its net income for the fourth quarter was in line with analyst consensus, despite non-cash charges of around $1.7 billion. Cash flow from operating activities for the year fell to $135.7 billion from $143.4 billion.

The Swiss market ended notably lower on Tuesday after languishing in negative territory right through day's trading session amid concerns about global economic growth as fresh U.S. tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China took effect today, and China and Canada announced retaliatory measures. The benchmark SMI ended down 159.94 points or 1.21% at 13,006.74, slightly off the day's low of 12,991.81. UBS Group plunged 7.2%. Partners Group tumbled 6.1% and Logitech International closed lower by 5.84%. Kuehne + Nagel, Sika and Holcim settled lower by 5%, 4.75% and 4.3%, respectively. ABB, VAT Group, Straumann Holding, Adecco, Swatch Group, Geberit and Alcon lost 2 to 4%. Julius Baer, Richemont, Swiss Life Holding, Lonza Group, Zurich Insurance Group, Sonova and Swiss Re also ended notably lower. Lindt & Spruengli climbed about 8.25%. Nestle, Schindler Ps, SIG Group, Roche, Givaudan and Novartis ended down 0.4 to 1.3%.

European stocks closed with sharp losses on Tuesday amid concerns about global economic growth as fresh U.S. tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China took effect today, and China and Canada announced retaliatory measures. The pan European Stoxx 600 ended down 1.65%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 closed 0.76% down, Germany's DAX tumbled 2.61% and France's CAC 40 fell 1.7%. Switzerland's SMI settled 1.21% down. Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden ended sharply lower. Greece and Turkiye closed slightly weak, while Russia bucked the trend and ended sharply higher. In the UK market, Intertek Group climbed about 4.5% after the company reported a jump in pre-tax profit for fiscal 2024. In the fiscal year ending December 31, pre-tax income was GBP 490 million, up from GBP 422.3 million last year, the company said. Net Income also came higher at GBP 367.2 million compared with GBP 318.1 million prior year, and earnings per share were 212.7 pence versus 183.4 pence in the previous year. Fresnillo rallied 3.45%. Severn Trent, Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Coca-Cola HBC, Pearson, GSK, Unilever, British American Tobacco, National Grid, AstraZeneca, United Utilities, Rolls-Royce Holdings and Haleon gained 1 to 3.2%. Ashtead Group ended down 8.2%. IAG closed 7.5% down.

After moving sharply lower early in the session, stocks staged a valiant recovery attempt over the course of the trading day on Tuesday only to once again come under pressure going into the close. The tech-heavy Nasdaq ended the day down 65.03 points or 0.4 percent at 18,285.16 after plunging by as much as 2.1 percent to a nearly five-month intraday low. The S&P 500 briefly reached positive territory but closed down 71.57 points or 1.2 percent at a four-month closing low of 5,776.15. The Dow also slumped 670.25 points or 1.6 percent to 42,520.99. The early sell-off on Wall Street came amid concerns about a global trade war after President Donald Trump's new tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China took effect. While some traders used the weakness as an opportunity to pick up stocks at reduced levels, buying interest evaporated in the final hour of trading. The White House said Trump is proceeding with implementing previously paused 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico to combat the extraordinary threat to U.S. national security posed by unchecked drug trafficking. Trump also increased the tariff on Chinese imports to 20 percent from 10 percent, claiming the country has not taken adequate steps to alleviate the illicit drug crisis. Canada responded by announcing 25 percent retaliatory tariffs on C$155 billion of American goods, starting with tariffs on C$30 billion worth of goods immediately and tariffs on the remaining C$125 billion in 21 days' time. In a subsequent post on Truth Social, Trump said Canada putting a retaliatory tariff on the U.S. will lead to a reciprocal tariff by the same amount. Banking stocks turned in some of the market's worst performances on the day, with the KBW Bank Index plunging by 4.6 percent to its lowest closing level in almost two months. Substantial weakness was also visible among airline stocks, as reflected by the 3.9 percent nosedive by the NYSE Arca Airline Index. The index plummeted to a more than four-month closing low.

The majority of Asian stock markets rose on Wednesday. Once again, they are no longer following the US lead. In Hong Kong, the leading index HSI rose by 1.8 per cent, while the Shanghai Composite gained 0.2 per cent. The ambitious growth target, which implies economic stimulus, is providing support there. China has set itself the target of stable economic growth of around 5 per cent year-on-year by 2025. Premier Li Qiang announced this target at the opening of the annual session of the National People's Congress.

In the bond market, treasuries moved modestly lower over the course of the session after seeing early strength. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite its price, rose 3.0 basis points to 4.210 percent after hitting a low of 4.106 percent.

Deutsche Bank lowers Bachem target to CHF 65 (71) – Hold
UBS raises Standard Chartered target to 1,440 (1,255) p – Buy
JP Morgan raises Fresenius target to EUR 56.90 (41.90) per share – Trader

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