Broadcom reported rapid revenue growth on Thursday as demand continues to rise for chips to fill data centers that power artificial-intelligence models. But shares fell in after-market trading as analysts raised questions about the company’s sales forecasts, contracts backlog and anticipated future margins. Broadcom, which specializes in designing custom AI accelerator chips for companies like Google, OpenAI and Meta, as well as other networking, storage and memory chips essential to advanced computing, posted a profit of $8.518 billion, or $1.74 a share, in the fiscal fourth quarter that ended in early November, compared with $4.3 billion and 90 cents a year earlier. Sales were $18.02 billion for the quarter, a record, and $63.9 billion for the full fiscal year, better than analyst estimates of $17.5 billion and $63.3 billion, respectively. In a statement accompanying the release, Broadcom Chief Executive Hock Tan attributed the revenue growth primarily to sales of AI chips. The company projected $8.2 billion in AI revenue for its first quarter, a considerable jump from the consensus forecast of $6.9 billion.

The Swiss market ended marginally down on Thursday, underperforming most of the other markets in Europe. The benchmark SMI, which drifted down to 12,867.05 in early trades, recovered and moved slightly below the flat line for much of the day's session and finally settled at 12,905.17, down 16.31 points or 0.13% from previous close. Straumann Holding climbed more than 4%. Amrize gained 3.33% and Kuehne + Nagel gained 2.63%. Holcim and Julius Baer gained about 2%. UBS Group, Sika, Zurich Insurance, Swiss Re, Sonova and Novartis closed up by 0.5 to 1.3%. Givaudan tanked 7.7%, weighed down by lower than expected fourth-quarter growth and a cautious sales outlook. Galderma Group and Lonza Group lost 2.74% and 2.5%, respectively. Alcon closed lower by 1.59% and Roche Holding ended down 1.27%. Partners Group, Lindt & Spruengli, SGS and Swisscom also ended notably lower. The SNB maintained its policy rate at 0%, in line with expectations. The central bank had reduced the key rate by 175 basis points since March 2024. The bank exited its negative rate in 2022 after holding it for over seven years.

Europe
European stocks closed higher on Thursday with some of the markets rising to multi-week highs, as the rate cut move by the Federal Reserve outweighed concerns about valuations of AI-related stocks. The pan European Stoxx 600 climbed 0.55%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 gained 0.49%, Germany's DAX closed higher by 0.68% and France's CAC 40 settled with a gain of 0.79%, while Switzerland's SMI ended down by 0.13%. Among other markets in Europe, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Turkiye closed higher. Iceland and Portugal ended weak, while Czech Republic settled flat. In the UK market, The Magnum Cream Company shares surged 5.7%, extending recent upmove. Metlen Energy & Metals climbed 5.35%, and Ashtead Group rallied 4.7%. JD Sports Fashion, Endeavour Mining, IAG, WPP, Fresenillo, Whitbread, Intercontinental Hotels Group, Diageo, Berkeley Group Holdings, Beazley, DCC, Croda International, Sainsbury (J) and Pearson gained 1.8 to 4%. Informa, Smith & Nephew, Entain, Associated British Foods and Centrica lost 1 to 3.3%. In the German market, Daimler Truck Holding, Brenntag, Heidelberg Materials, BASF, Siemens, Deutsche Post, Merck, Continental and Munich RE gained 2 to 4.5%. E.ON drifted down 3.1%, and Deutsche Boerse lost about 2.1%. Qiagen and MTU Aero Engines also declined sharply. In the French market, TP, Saint Gobain, Capgemini, Carrefour, Pernod Ricard, Vinci, BNP Paribas and Edenred gained 2 to 5%.

United States
The major U.S. stock indexes moved in starkly opposite directions in early trading on Thursday, with the Dow moving sharply higher and the Nasdaq showing a significant pullback. While the Nasdaq climbed well off its worst levels of the day, the tech-heavy index still closed 60.30 points or 0.3 percent at 23,593.85. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 rose 14.32 points or 0.2 percent to 6,901.00 and the Dow jumped 646.26 points or 1.3 percent to 48,704.01. The surge by the Dow partly reflected a sharp increase by shares of Visa (V), with the payment card services company spiking by 6.1 percent after Bank of American upgraded its rating on the stock to Buy from Neutral. Strong gains by Nike (NKE), UnitedHealth (UNH) and American Express (AXP) also contributed to the jump by the blue chip index. On the other hand, a steep drop by shares of Oracle (ORCL) weighed on the Nasdaq, as the software giant plunged by 10.8 percent. The slump by Oracle came after the company reported fiscal second quarter earnings that exceeded analyst estimates but weaker than expected revenues. Other AI-related stocks like Nvidia (NVDA) also moved to the downside, potentially reflecting renewed valuation concerns. On the U.S. economic front, the Labor Department released a report showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits rebounded by more than expected in the week ended December 6th. The report said initial jobless claims rose to 236,000, an increase of 44,000 from the previous week's revised level of 192,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to climb to 220,000 from the 191,000 originally reported for the previous week.

Asia
On Friday, share prices rose significantly on most stock exchanges in Asia and Australia-Oceania. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 rose by 1.2 per cent, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong gained as much as 1.6 per cent, and in Australia, the leading index was up 1.2 per cent.

Bonds
In the U.S. bond market, treasuries extended the upward move seen over the course of the previous session. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, fell 2.3 basis points to 4.141 percent.

Analysis
UBS raises Roche target to CHF 356 (314) – Buy
UBS raises H&M target to SEK 171 (132) –Neutral
Citi lowers Dassault Systèmes target to EUR 26 (33) – Neutral

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