Goldman Sachs said a jump in equities trading revenue fueled its profit in the first quarter, which ended just before President Trump’s sweeping tariffs set off market turmoil. JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley also last week reported big revenue increases from equities trading. The heightened activity reflected investors repositioning their portfolios in the face of uncertainty about Trump’s trade and economic policies. The upheaval in markets since then has put top bankers and their corporate clients on edge about what might come next. For now, there is optimism that intensified trading will offset a slowdown in investment banking. In the first three months of the year, Goldman’s profit rose 15% to $4.74 billion. That amounted to $14.12 per share, easily surpassing analyst expectations. Revenue rose 6% to $15.06 billion, also topping forecasts. An increase in trading revenue was led by a 27% jump in the bank’s equities trading and financing businesses. At the start of the year, many investor portfolios were positioned for “American exceptionalism” trades to continue or accelerate, top bank executives say. Now many clients are seeking to lessen their exposure to U.S. stocks and the dollar in exchange for international assets, including to Europe and South America, executives say.

Swiss stocks closed on an upbeat note on Monday with investors reacting to an announcement from the White House that tariffs on imports of Chinese-made smartphones and some other electronics devices would not apply. However, the rollback may end up being short-lived as President Donald Trump said these goods were simply being moved into a different tariff group or 'bucket'. The benchmark SMI settled with a strong gain of 259.63 points or 2.31% at 11,499.46. The index touched a high of 11,552.98. Logitech International climbed 6.6%. VAT Group, Partners Group, Roche Holding, Adecco and Novartis gained 3 to 3.5%. Sandoz Group shares climbed nearly 3.5% after the company filed an antitrust lawsuit in the US against biotechnology company Amgen, accusing the latter of blocking competition from cost-effective biosimilar competitors for its Enbrel drug, including the Swiss pharmaceutical company's Erelzi, by using patent rights UBS Group gained nearly 3%. SIG Group, Swiss Re and ABB climbed about 2.8%. Holcim, Kuehne + Nagel, Alcon and Sika closed higher by 2.4 to 2.6%. Zurich Insurance, Straumann Holding, Swatch Group, Geberit, Swiss Life Holding, Lindt & Spruengli, Sonova, Schindler Ps, Lonza Group, Swisscom and Nestle also posted strong gains. Clariant surged 3.75% on reports the specialty chemicals group is in talks with investment banks to explore strategies that could better align its valuation with business performance.

European stocks closed on a buoyant note on Monday with investors reacting to a temporary tariff exemption by the U.S. on tech products. The pan European Stoxx 600 climbed 2.1%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 gained 1.87%, Germany's DAX closed up 2.27% and France's CAC 40 jumped 1.99%, while Switzerland's SMI settled 2.31% up. Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Turkiye closed with sharp to moderate gains. In the UK market, Melrose Industries, St. James's Place, Standard Chartered, Barclays, Convatec Group, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury (J), Hiscox, HSBC Holdings, Airtel Africa, EasyJet, Prudential, M&G, Kingfisher and Vodafone Group gained 3.5 to 5.5%. In the German market, Siemens Energy, Deutsche Bank, Fresenius Medical Care, Rheinmetall, Zalando, Deutsche Post, Sartorius, Bayer, Daimler Truck Holding, Munich RE, BMW, Infineon, Adidas, Brenntag, BASF, Hannover Rueck, Heidelberg Materials and Allianz gained 3 to 6%. In Paris, Eurofins Scientific, BNP Paribas, Saint Gobain, Edenred, Schneider Electric, Societe Generale, Airbus, Pernod Ricard, Capgemini and Thales climbed 3 to 6%. TotalEnergies, ArcelorMittal, AXA, Vivendi, Publicis Groupe, Unibail Rodamco, Renault, STMicroElectronics, Hermes International, Legrand, Dassault Systemes, Credit Agricole, Safron, Vinci and Carrefour also moved up sharply.

After moving sharply higher over the course of last Friday's session, stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading day on Monday but managed to end the day mostly higher. The major averages all finished the day firmly positive, climbing further off the one-year lows hit last Tuesday. The Dow jumped 312.08 points or 0.8 percent to 40,524.79, the Nasdaq rose 107.03 points or 0.6 percent to 16,831.48 and the S&P 500 climbed 42.61 points or 0.8 percent to 5,405.07. The higher close on Wall Street came after U.S. Customs and Border Protection guidance issued late Friday revealed certain tech products will be excluded from President Donald Trump's 'reciprocal tariffs.' The excluded products purportedly include smartphones and computers as well as other devices and components like semiconductors. Biotechnology stocks showed a substantial move to the upside on the day, resulting in a 2.5 percent surge by the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index. Considerable strength was also visible among commercial real estate stocks, as reflected by the 2.1 jump by the Dow Jones U.S. Commercial Real Estate Index. Pharmaceutical, computer hardware and utilities stocks also saw significant strength, closing higher along with most of the major sectors. In overseas trading stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher during trading on Monday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index jumped by 1.2 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index surged by 2.4 percent.

Asian stock markets continued to rise on Tuesday. With hopes of further exemptions from US tariffs, the Nikkei rose by 1.1 per cent to 34,345 points. The Kospi in Seoul rose by 0.9 per cent and the most important indices in India gained around 2 per cent. The Chinese stock exchanges are more or less treading water: both the Hangseng and the indices in Shanghai are close to Monday's closing levels.

In the U.S. bond market, treasuries regained ground after moving sharply lower last week. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, tumbled by 12.9 basis points to 4.364 percent.

UBS lowers Volkswagen target to EUR 84 (105) – Neutral
UBS lowers Schaeffler target to EUR 3.40 (4.30) – Neutral
UBS lowers Continental target to EUR 78 (80) – Buy