Samsung Electronics expects its second-quarter operating profit to more than halve from a year earlier, a much sharper drop than market consensus, hurt by U.S. trade curbs on China and its delayed sales of advanced artificial-intelligence chips to Nvidia. The South Korean technology giant attributed its downbeat earnings guidance partly to one-off provisional costs to recognize inventory value losses stemming from U.S. export controls limiting the sale of advanced chips to China. The company on Tuesday projected a 56% year-over-year plunge in April-June operating profit to 4.600 trillion won, equivalent to $3.34 billion, missing the 6.359 trillion won consensus estimate of analysts in a FactSet poll. That is its first profit decline since the fourth quarter of 2023, according to Samsung.
Quarterly revenue was likely flat at 74.000 trillion won, it said in a preliminary earnings report. The company, which is scheduled to release full quarterly results later this month, didn’t provide further earnings details. Samsung has been struggling to catch up with its smaller chip-making rivals, SK Hynix and Micron Technology, which have benefited from brisk shipments of higher-end AI chips.
Its shares were 1.1% lower at 61,000 won in early trading, reversing an opening gain after the preliminary earnings report. The stock has risen around 16% year to date, trailing gains by most other major memory-chip makers and underperforming the benchmark Kospi’s 28% increase. Analysts have said that Samsung’s delayed supply of advanced high-bandwidth-memory products to Nvidia likely continued to weigh on the company’s DRAM segment. Global chip makers, including Samsung, have been under pressure from U.S. restrictions on the export of advanced chips and chip-making equipment to China.

The Swiss stock market was held back on Monday by defensive heavyweights, particularly in the pharmaceutical sector. The SMI lost 0.1 per cent to 11,955 points. Among the 21 SMI stocks, there were eleven gainers and ten losers. A total of 14.16 million shares were traded (previously: 14.12 million). Following the most recent gains due to reports that local pharmaceutical companies could be exempted from additional US tariffs, pharmaceutical stocks Novartis and Roche now lost 0.5 and 1.1 per cent respectively. Defensive heavyweight Nestle also shed 1.1 per cent. Alcon dropped by 0.3 per cent; the ophthalmology specialist is acquiring the US medical technology company LumiThera. Suppliers of medical technology were under pressure across Europe. China had announced that it would restrict imports of medical technology from the EU. In Switzerland, the shares of Straumann (-0.5%) and Sonova (-1.0%) experienced a downturn. Among the small caps, Swissquote surged by 8.7 per cent. The financial company took over the app Yuh completely.

Europe
The European stock markets began the week higher, with investors' attention still focused on the trade negotiations between the United States and its main trading partners. The Stoxx Europe 600 index gained 0.4% on Monday to 543.5 points. In Paris, the CAC 40 also climbed 0.4% and the SBF 120 added 0.3%. The DAX 40 jumped 1.2% in Frankfurt, while the FTSE 100 fell 0.2% in London. CAPGEMINI (-5.6%): the digital services group announced on Monday that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire digital business transformation and services specialist WNS for a pre-debt consideration of $3.3 billion (around €2.8 billion). ALSTOM (+1.5% to €19.43): On Monday, JPMorgan raised its target price for the stock from €25 to €28 and confirmed its ‘overweight’ recommendation ahead of the publication of the rail equipment manufacturer's first-quarter sales and orders on 23 July.

United States
President Trump ‘s barrage of new tariffs drove stocks lower on Monday and moved trade tensions back to the forefront on Wall Street. Trump took to his Truth Social platform Monday afternoon to announce the U.S. would impose 25% tariffs on goods from Japan and South Korea. He later revealed that other nations, including Laos and Malaysia, would face higher levies. With each post, the major stock indexes fell further. Oil prices and bond yields rose, reflecting concerns that heavier tariffs would lead to higher inflation. The S&P 500 fell 0.8% to 6229.98, still close to the all-time high the index hit last week. The Nasdaq composite and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gave up 0.9%. The September contract for Brent crude oil rose 1.9%, and the 10-year Treasury yield climbed 0.05 percentage point to 4.394%. Shares of trade-sensitive companies such as Lululemon, Estée Lauder, First Solar and Deere declined. Trump’s social-media activity also weighed on Tesla stock after the president ridiculed Elon Musk’s new political party formed in opposition to ballooning fiscal deficits under the newly passed spending bill. Tesla shares declined 6.8%, their worst one-day drop since June 5 and are down 27% this year. The dollar strengthened. The WSJ Dollar Index, which tracks the U.S. currency against 16 peers, was up 0.6% and was up three of the past four trading days. Bitcoin traded around $108,000, not far off record highs. The Cboe Volatility Index, Wall Street’s fear gauge, rose about 9%, but remained far off the Liberation Day highs hit in April.

Asia
Asian stock markets are trading mixed on Tuesday, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, amid renewed uncertainty over U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff policies after he again extended the implementation of new reciprocal tariffs until at least August 1. Japan is facing tariffs of 25 percent, much lower than up to 35 percent expected earlier. The Japanese stock market is trading modestly higher on Tuesday, reversing the losses in the previous session. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index closed the morning session at 39,711.29, up 123.61 points or 0.31 percent.

Bonds
Long-dated U.S. government debt yields edged higher on Monday. The 10-year Treasury note yield rose by 7 basis points to 4.39%. Traders referred to inflation concerns in view of the impending wave of tariffs.

Analysis
Citi cuts Richemont target to CHF 173 (193) - Buy
Vontobel raises Schindler target to CHF 330 (300) - Buy
Deutsche Bank downgrades Sika target to CHF 284 (298) - Buy