Ryanair Holdings posted an increase in first-half net profit, beating analysts’ estimates, and said that earlier-than-expected deliveries of Boeing aircraft would allow it to carry more passengers in fiscal 2026 than previously forecast. The Irish budget airline said Monday that net profit in the first six months of its fiscal year reached 2.54 billion euros ($2.93 billion), up 42% on year, compared with a Visible Alpha consensus estimate of 2.50 billion euros. The company carried 119 million passengers in the first half, surpassing the 115.3 million passengers in the first period of fiscal 2025. Ryanair lifted its passenger outlook for fiscal 2026 to 207 million, up from 206 million, citing earlier-than-expected Boeing aircraft deliveries and strong demand. Revenue for the period was 9.82 billion euros compared with 8.69 billion euros a year earlier and a Visible Alpha consensus of 9.78 billion euros. The carrier said it remains too early to provide meaningful fiscal 2026 guidance, but it expects to recover all of last year’s 7% full-year decline. That should lead to reasonable net profit growth for the year, it added. The board declared a dividend of 0.193 euros.

The Swiss market ended weak on Friday, in line with markets across Europe, as investors chose to trim down positions at several counters, continuing to react to earnings updates and assessing the developments on the trade front. The benchmark SMI edged up slightly at the start, but dropped soon and stayed weak right till the end of the session. The index settled with a loss of 75.13 points or 0.61% at 12,234.50, nearly 100 points off the day's high of 12,332.95. Swatch Group closed down by 3.7%. Swiss Re ended nearly 2% down. VAT Group, Amrise and Zurich Insurance drifted down by about 1.75%. Lindt & Spruengli, Richemont, Roche Holding, Swiss Life Holding, Givaudan, Lonza Group and Nestle drifted down by 0.7 to 1.3%. Straumann Holding climbed 4.21%. Sandoz Group gained 1.1%, and Galderma Group closed 0.7% up. On the economic front, Swiss retail sales increased at a faster than expected pace in September after a renewed decline in August, data from the Federal Statistical Office revealed. In real terms, retail sales climbed 1.5% on a yearly basis, reversing a 0.4% fall in August, which was the first decrease in fourteen months. Meanwhile, sales were expected to rise by 0.3%. Excluding service stations, total retail sales advanced 2%. Sales of food, drinks, and tobacco registered an annual growth of 1.3%, and the non-food sector posted a 2.5% expansion.

Europe
European markets closed weak on Friday, as investors reacted to a slew of earnings updates, regional economic data, and continued to assess the recent policy announcements from major central banks, and the developments on the trade front. The pan European Stoxx 600 ended down by 0.51%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 and France's CAC 40 both closed lower by 0.44%, and Germany's DAX ended 0.67% down. Switzerland's SMI lost 0.61%. Among other markets in Europe, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia and Sweden ended weak. Austria, Czech Republic, Norway and Turkiye closed higher, while Ireland and Spain ended flat. In the UK market, WPP closed down by 5%. Auto Trader Group, Burberry Group, Intercontinental Hotels Group, Whitbread, Hiscoz and Barratt Redrow lost 2 to 3.51%. Smith & Nephew climbed 2.78%. Metlen Energy & Metals moved up by 2.1%. BT Group, Babcock International, Diageo, Haleon, Easyjet, Vodafone Group and Hikma Pharmaceuticals also closed on firm note. In the German market, Allianz, Munich RE, Hannover Rueck, Symrise, Adidas, Deutsche Telekom, Vonovia, E.ON, Zalando and Scout24 lost 1 to 2%. Qiagen, Merck, Commerzbank and Siemens Energy posted notable gains. In the French market, AXA ended more than 4% down, after reporting a 6% in gross written premiums and other revenues for the first nine months of the year. Saint Gobain closed nearly 4% down. Edenred lost about 3.6% and Kering closed lower by 2.5%. Veolia Environment, Schneider Electric, Air Liquide, Accor, Michelin and Hermes International lost 1 to 2%.

United States
After showing a strong move to the upside early in the session, stocks saw considerable volatility over the course of the trading day on Friday. The major averages pulled back off their early highs in mid-day trading before moving back to the upside only to once again give back ground going into the end the session. Despite the late-day pullback, the major averages all ended the day in positive territory. The Nasdaq climbed 143.81 points or 0.6 percent to 23,724.96, the S&P 500 rose 17.86 points or 0.3 percent to 6,840.20 and the Dow inched up 40.75 points or 0.1 percent to 47,562.87. For the week, the tech-heavy Nasdaq surged by 2.2 percent, while the Dow and the S&P 500 advanced by 0.8 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively. The early strength on Wall Street largely reflected a positive reaction to earnings news from Amazon (AMZN), with the online retail giant soaring by 9.6 percent on the day. Amazon reached a new record closing high after reporting better than expected third quarter results amid a sharp increase in cloud computing revenue. 'The e-commerce division may have by far the bigger public profile but it's the cloud services AWS division which is the real engine of Amazon's growth and, it's this which sparked the share price into life,' said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould. He added, 'Demand for computing power linked to AI is showing no signs of letting up and that is driving significant growth for AWS, with third-quarter numbers helping to ease fears that this business was losing ground to rival operators.' Netflix (NFLX) also turned in a strong performance on the day after the streaming giant announced its board of directors has approved a ten-for-one stock split. On the other hand, iPhone maker Apple (AAPL) moved to the downside despite reporting fiscal fourth quarter results that exceeded analyst estimates and providing upbeat guidance for the current quarter.

Asia
The mood on the Asian stock markets remains positive at the start of the new week. Although the Tokyo Stock Exchange is still closed after Monday's recent surge, the market in Korea continues its record run, with the Kospi rising 2.5 per cent to 4,211 points following strong export data. The Shanghai index remains virtually unchanged after weak economic data, while in Hong Kong the Hang Seng is up 0.6 per cent. Sydney is holding up well.

Bonds
In the U.S. bond market, treasuries showed a lack of direction over the course of the session before closing roughly flat. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, crept up by less than a basis point to 4.101 percent.

Analysis
HSBC raises Shell target to 3,080 (2,950) p – Hold
HSBC raises Repsol target to 15 (13.50) EUR – Hold
Bank of America lowers Ocado target to 330 (400) GBp – Buy

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