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By Swissquote Analysts
Morning News

Japan Bends to Global Forces Pushing Up Interest Rates

The Bank of Japan’s governor, nearing the end of a decade in office, gave markets one more surprise on Tuesday in the form of an interest-rate increase that he said wasn’t really an increase. It capped an event-filled year for developed-world central bankers in which the Federal Reserve lifted its benchmark rate above 4% and the European Central Bank moved up to 2%.

By
Mathieu VILLARD
Morning News

Elon Musk’s Twitter Poll Shows Users Want Him to Step Down as CEO

Elon Musk should step down as chief of Twitter Inc., according to a poll the billionaire orchestrated and pledged to follow, casting new uncertainty on the social-media platform after more than seven weeks of turmoil since he took it over. More than 17 million Twitter users had voted by the time the poll on the platform closed after 6 a.m. ET, with 57.5% saying he should leave as head of the company. Mr. Musk, who in October closed a $44 billion deal for Twitter, had said when he launched the Twitter poll on Sunday that he would abide by the results. It isn’t clear who would take over leading Twitter if Mr. Musk steps aside as CEO, or what his role would be, given that he still owns the company.

By
Nadine PEREIRA
Morning News

Satellite Owner Maxar Gets Buyout Offer

Advent International agreed to buy Maxar Technologies Inc. in a deal that values the satellite owner and operator at about $4 billion. Advent is paying $53 a share for Maxar, the companies said, confirming an earlier Wall Street Journal report. Shares of Maxar, which had fallen 23.5% since the beginning of the year, closed at $23.10 on Thursday. They soared 125% Friday on the news to close at $51.93. Including debt, the transaction is worth $6.4 billion, making it one of the bigger buyouts to be announced during the past few months, when market turmoil and a challenging financing environment have made it harder to do deals.

By
Nadine PEREIRA
Morning News

H&M Sales Rise but Lag Behind Rival as Growth Slows

H&M Hennes & Mauritz AB (-6.9%) reported a 12% rise in annual sales but the rate of growth slowed in the fourth quarter as the fast-fashion giant grapples with economic uncertainty. The retailer said revenue for the 12 months to Nov. 30 came in at 224 billion Swedish krona, equivalent to $21.84 billion. That means the company has yet to bounce back to prepandemic levels, having reported sales of 233 billion krona in 2019. While H&M has previously said that its collections this year have been well received by shoppers, its overall performance in 2022 has been hampered by the closure of its stores in Russia and Belarus in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

By
Nadine PEREIRA
Morning News

Fed Raises Rate by 0.5 Percentage Point, Signals More Increases Likely

The Federal Reserve approved an interest-rate increase of 0.5 percentage but also signalled rates may have to move even higher than previously thought to rein in inflation. Investors had widely anticipated the Fed would announce it would raise its key policy rate by half a percentage point. What they weren’t as sure of ahead of Wednesday’s meeting was how much higher Fed officials see interest rates having to go next year. Those who had been hoping the Fed might be done raising rates relatively soon may have been left disappointed. Fed officials signaled they see interest rates rising to around 5.1% by the end of next year, up from previous estimates in September of around 4.6%. Officials also said they see unemployment rising and economic growth being tepid in 2023.

By
Nadine PEREIRA
Morning News

U.S. Inflation Eased in November, CPI Report Shows

Consumer prices rose last month at the slowest 12-month pace since December 2021, closing out a year in which inflation hit the highest level in four decades and challenged the Federal Reserve’s ability to keep the U.S. economy on track. The Labor Department said that its consumer-price index, a measurement of what consumers pay for goods and services, climbed 7.1% in November from a year ago, down sharply from 7.7% in October. The pace built on a trend of moderating price increases since June’s 9.1% peak, but it remained well above the 2.1% average rate in the three years before the pandemic.

By
Nadine PEREIRA
Morning News

Amgen Agrees to Acquire Horizon Therapeutics for $27.8 Billion

Amgen Inc. agreed to acquire Horizon Therapeutics PLC for $27.8 billion, marking the largest healthcare merger of the year. Under the terms of the deal, Amgen will pay $116.50 for each Horizon share, a premium of 19.7% over the stock’s closing price Friday at $97.29 and nearly 50% over where it traded when the company said last month that it might be sold. While the shares of Horizon Therapeutics added 15.5%, Amgen edged 0.7% lower.

By
Nadine PEREIRA
Morning News

Ericsson Reaches Deal to End Patent-related Legal Disputes With Apple

Swedish telecom equipment group Ericsson announced that it has reached a multi-year, global patent license agreement with Apple Inc. (-0.3%), ending all ongoing patent-related legal disputes in several countries. The agreement includes a cross-license relating to patented cellular standard-essential technologies and grants certain other patent rights.

By
Mathieu VILLARD
Morning News

Credit Suisse Completes $2.4 Billion Capital Raise as It Advances Cost Cuts

Credit Suisse Group AG said Thursday that it completed its latest rights offering and had put into action around 80% of the cost cuts it planned for 2023, as the bank maintains course through its painful strategic review. The Swiss lender said that 98.2% of rights offered had been exercised, or around 873 million new shares, until the end of the rights period at midday Zurich time on Thursday. The gross proceeds of the rights offering amount to approximately CHF2.24 billion ($2.38 billion), which, added to a previous capital increase, should raise around CHF4.0 billion, the company said.

By
Nadine PEREIRA
Morning News

GSK, Sanofi Shares Jump After U.S. Judge Dismisses Zantac Lawsuit

Shares in pharmaceutical companies GSK PLC and Sanofi SA traded higher after a U.S. judge dismissed a series of lawsuits around a heartburn treatment that the companies had marketed. The lawsuits, which numbered in the tens of thousands, alleged that the drug, called Zantac, could cause cancer. The judge concluded on Tuesday that there was no scientific evidence to support the claim that Zantac’s active substance, called ranitidine, was carcinogenic. Shares in GSK were trading 7.5% higher on Wednesday, while Sanofi stock was up 6.1%.

By
Nadine PEREIRA