Vertex Pharmaceuticals has agreed to acquire Alpine Immune Sciences for $4.9 billion in cash, bolstering its portfolio on kidney diseases as deals in biotechnology continue to heat up. The companies said Wednesday that Vertex would pay $65 a share for Alpine. Net of expected cash to be acquired the deal is valued at roughly $4.6 billion. The acquisition is the largest in Vertex's history, a spokeswoman for Vertex said. Alpine's lead candidate is being evaluated as a potential treatment for IgA nephropathy, a chronic kidney condition that can lead to end-stage renal disease, and affects about 130,000 people in the U.S., the companies said. The molecule, called povetacicept, is expected to enter Phase 3 development in the second half of this year. The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of 2024, the companies said. The deal represents a premium of about 67% on Alpine's Tuesday closing price. Shares gained 21% on Wednesday after earlier reports of the deal, and were recently up 36% in the late session.

The Switzerland market ended modestly lower on Thursday after a choppy ride amid a lack of positive triggers. The recent inflation data from the U.S. has raised concerns that the Fed will keep interest rates higher for a longer period, and today, the ECB has maintained in its interest rates. The benchmark SMI ended with a loss of 29.47 points or 0.26% at 11,465.74, declining for a third straight day. The index touched a high of 11,537.57 and a low of 11,427.48 in the session. UBS Group dropped about 2.5%. Zurich Insurance Group, Swiss Re and Richemont lost 1 to 1.25%. Swiss Life Holding ended nearly 1% down. Givaudan ended down by 0.65% despite posting higher first-quarter sales. ABB, Novartis and Swisscom ended modeslty lower. Sika climbed 1.13%. Roche Holding, Sonova and Lonza Group gained 0.75 to 1%. Geberit, Nestlé, Partners Group and Logitech International posted modest gains. In the Mid Price Index, Meyer Burger Tech ended more than 8% down. Flughafen Zurich tumbled 4.2%. Swatch Group, SGS, Tecan Group and Avolta closed lower by 1 to 1.5%. Clariant and Sandoz gained 2.82% and 2.59%, respectively. BKW gained 1.5% and Temenos Group advanced 1.3%. Barry Callebaut ended 0.88% up.

Europe
European stocks closed lower on Thursday on inflation concerns and uncertainty about the Federal Reserve cutting interest rate in June. The markets also digested the European Central Bank's decision to hold interest rates unchanged. The ECB Governing Council, led by President Christine Lagarde, left the main refinancing rate, or refi, unchanged at 4.5%, as expected. Lagarde emphasized that the ECB is not committing to a specific rate trajectory and that future decisions will be dependent on data Policymakers consider that the key interest rates are at levels that are making a substantial contribution to the ongoing disinflation process, the ECB said. Future decisions will ensure that its policy rates will stay sufficiently restrictive for as long as necessary, the bank added. The bank reiterated that it will continue to follow a data-dependent and meeting-by-meeting approach to determining the appropriate level and duration of restriction, and that it is not pre-committing to a particular rate path. Markets widely expect the central bank for the single currency bloc to lower interest rates in the June 6 policy session. Expectations have been strengthened by the easing trends in inflation data, though underlying price pressures remain high, and recent comments from ECB policymakers including Lagarde. The pan European Stoxx 600 dropped 0.4%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 ended down by 0.47%, Germany's DAX drifted down 0.79% and France's CAC 40 lost 0.27%, while Switzerland's SMI closed lower by 0.27%. Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain and Sweden closed weak. Denmark, Portugal and Turkiye ended higher, while Belgium and Russia settled flat.

United States
Tech stocks led the market rebound Thursday, bouncing back after the prior session’s inflation-induced selloff. The Nasdaq Composite rose 1.7% to clinch a new all-time high. The S&P 500 gained 0.7%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed about 2 points, or 0.01%. Stocks mostly shook off Wednesday’s pullback, which was driven by a hotter-than-expected consumer-price reading. The report marked the latest in a series of releases showing persistent inflationary pressures, forcing investors to reconsider whether the Federal Reserve will be able to cut interest rates soon. The latest wholesale price report released Thursday morning offered some relief to investors on edge about inflation. The producer-price index rose 0.2% in March, lower than economists’ expectations of 0.3%. Shares of tech companies rallied. The S&P 500’s information-technology sector jumped 2.4%, the top-performing segment of the index on Thursday, followed by communication-services and consumer-discretionary stocks. Amazon shares rose 1.7% to notch a fresh all-time high after CEO Andy Jassy said generative artificial intelligence could be one of the largest technological transformations in decades, and committed to cutting costs. Nvidia’s stock climbed 4.1% and Apple advanced 4.3%.

Asia
The stock markets in East Asia and Australia closed the week with some significant negative signs. The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong recorded the sharpest decline, falling by 1.7 per cent. The Shanghai Composite remained virtually unchanged. The Kospi in Seoul lost 0.8 per cent and the Straits Times Index in Singapore fell by 0.3 per cent. As widely expected, the South Korean central bank and the central bank in Singapore have confirmed their key interest rates.

Bonds
In the U.S. bond market, treasuries fluctuated over the course of the session before closing slightly lower. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, crept up by 1.6 basis points to a nearly five-month closing high of 4.576 percent.

Analysis
UBS downgrades Kardex to Neutral (Buy) – CHF 267 (240)
Citi raises Orange to EUR 12 (11.85) – Buy
Citi raises Daimler Truck to EUR 53.60 (50) – Buy

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