When Elon Musk created his artificial-intelligence startup xAI last year, he said its researchers would work on existential problems like understanding the nature of the universe. Musk is also using xAI to pursue a more worldly goal: joining forces with his social-media company X. The AI company, for example, says it has an advantage of having access to X’s trove of posts. And xAI’s flagship product, the chatbot Grok, is available only to users who pay for a subscription on X. The result is that, in the seven months since xAI publicly launched, X and xAI are increasingly intertwined. Their ties offer insight into how Musk is betting on AI efforts as a key part of his aim to help turn around X’s business and transform X into an “everything app.” With X and xAI, Musk is drawing on overlapping financial backers, technology and data to help jump-start the AI company and bring X closer to the app that he envisions, which would offer messaging, digital banking, video entertainment and more, all while being what he has called the global town square for mostly unfiltered communication

Swiss stocks turned in a fairly steady performance on Friday on upbeat retail sales data, and amid optimism the Federal Reserve will announce an interest-rate cut in June. The benchmark SMI ended with a gain of 55.06 points or 0.48% at 11,493.92 after touching a low of 11,456.21 and a high of 11,529.24 in the session. Data released by the Federal Statistical Office showed Swiss retail sales rose 0.3% year-on-year in January, marking the first increase since June 2023. In December, retail sales fell by a downwardly revised 0.1%. Retail sales advaced 0.7% from a month earlier in January, recovering from a downwardly revised 0.3% drop in the previous month. Meanwhile, the Swiss procure.ch and Credit Suisse Manufacturing PMI rose to 44.0 in February from 43.1 in the previous month. Holcim gained nearly 2%, and Richemont ended 1.81% up. Sonova climbed 1.54%, while Alcon, UBS Group and Sika ended higher by 1 to 1.25%. Geberit, Nestle, Lonza Group, Novartis and Roche Holdings posted moderate gains. Kuehne & Nagel tanked 13.5% after the logistics company's fourth quarter results fell short of expectations. The company reported an after-tax profit of 283 million Swiss francs ($320 million) for the fourth quarter, compared to CHF494 million in the same period a year earlier. In the Mid Price Index, Meyer Burger Tech soared more than 17%. Clariant advanced 3.1%, while Straumann Holding and SIG Combibloc both gained about 2.25%.

Europe
European stocks closed broadly higher on Friday as data showed eurozone inflation fell in February, albeit less than expected. Optimism about the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank cutting their interest rates in June helped underpin sentiment. Flash data from Eurostat showed Eurozone inflation softened for the second straight month in February. The harmonized index of consumer prices rose 2.6% annually after rising 2.8% in January. Prices were forecast to climb 2.5%. Core inflation that excludes energy, food, alcohol and tobacco eased to 3.1% from 3.3% a month ago, the data showed. However, this was above economists' forecast of 2.9%. On a monthly basis, the HICP gained 0.6% in February. The pan European Stoxx 600 climbed 0.6%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 gained 0.69%, Germany's DAX advanced 0.32% and France's CAC 40 edged up 0.09%. Switzerland's SMI ended 0.48% up. Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Spain ended with sharp to moderate gains. Poland, Russia, Sweden and Finland posted modest gains. Greece edged up marginally, while Turkiye ended weak. In the UK market, Pearson rallied 5.5%. Standard Chartered, Anglo American Plc and Endeavour gained more than 4%. Barclays Group, Natwest Group, Airtel Africa, Reckitt Benckiser, Croda International, Segro, Barratt Developments and Beazley gained 2.3 to 3.2%. BP, Howden Joinery, Vodafone, Fresnillo, Glencore, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Talyor Wimpey, Lloyds Banking, 3i, Royal Dutch Shell, Land Securities and DS Smith advanced 1.5 to 2.2%. ITV surged 14.3%. The media firm has sold its entire 50% interest in digital subscription streaming service BritBox International to BBC Studios, ITV's joint venture partner, for 255 million pounds, to be paid in cash.

United States
Stocks showed a strong move to the upside during trading on Friday, adding to the gains posted in Thursday's session. With the extended upward move, the Nasdaq and S&P 500 once again reached new record closing highs. The tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 183.02 points or 1.1 percent to 16,274.94 and the S&P 500 climbed 40.81 points or 0.8 percent to 5,137.08. The narrower Dow posted a more modest gain, rising 90.99 points or 0.2 percent to 39,087.38. For the week, the Nasdaq shot up by 1.7 percent and the S&P 500 advanced by 1.0 percent, but the Dow edged down by 0.1 percent. The surge by the Nasdaq partly reflected substantial strength among computer hardware stocks following upbeat results from Dell (DELL), with the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index soaring by 6.9 percent to a record closing high. Shares of Dell skyrocketed by 31.6 percent after the computer maker reported fourth quarter results that exceeded analyst estimates on both the top and bottom lines. The upbeat results from Dell also contributed to significant strength among semiconductor stocks, as reflected by the 4.3 percent spike by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index. The index also reached a record closing high. Biotechnology and networking stocks also saw considerable strength, while gold, oil service and pharmaceutical stocks turned in some of the best performances outside the tech sector. The ISM said its manufacturing PMI dipped to 47.8 in February from 49.1 in January, with a reading below 50 indicating contraction. Economists had expected the index to inch up to 49.5.

Asia
No clear trend emerged on the Asian and Australian stock exchanges in late trading on Monday, one day before the start of the eagerly awaited National People's Congress in China. The only thing the various trading centres have in common is the rather small swings. In Tokyo, however, the Nikkei-225 jumped above the 40,000 point mark for the first time - driven by the rally in technology stocks. These had already boosted Wall Street on Friday.

Bonds
In the U.S. bond market, treasuries moved notably higher after seeing early weakness. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, slid 7.2 basis point to 4.180 percent after reaching a high of 4.296 percent.

Analysis
Barclays lowers the Anheuser-Busch InBev target to EUR 63 (67) – Overw.
UBS raises the Traton target to EUR 27 (23) – Buy
UBS lowers the Implenia target to CHF 39 (41) – Buy

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