Artificial intelligence is supercharging Google’s advertising and cloud-computing businesses, and the company is ramping up spending to unheard-of levels in its quest to win the AI race. Google parent Alphabet reported an 18% jump in fourth-quarter revenue and revealed plans to roughly double its spending on data centers and other capital projects. Sales exceeded analysts’ expectations at nearly $114 billion, driven by growth in the company’s digital-advertising and cloud-computing units. Net income was $34.5 billion, a 30% increase compared with the same period a year earlier. The company reported a record $403 billion in sales in 2025 - the first time annual revenue surpassed $400 billion. Profit reached about $132 billion last year. Google, like other tech companies, is spending tens of billions of dollars to develop AI models and build the data centers needed to train and run them. Data-center development has become increasingly difficult as tech companies face constraints in finding or building electricity supplies to run them. The company lifted estimates for capital expenditures this year to $175 billion to $185 billion, up from $91 billion to $93 billion in 2025. Alphabet’s shares traded between 6% lower and 2% higher after hours as executives addressed investors.

Shrugging off a sluggish start, the Swiss market climbed higher on Wednesday with several stocks posting strong gains on sustained buying support. The benchmark SMI, which hit a high of 13,587.80 in the final hour, closed up by 135.54 points or 1.01% at 13,508.12. Kuehne + Nagel gained nearly 5%. Givaudan, Straumann Holding, Swisscom, Geberit, Zurich Insurance, Swiss Re, Sika, Nestle and Logitech International climbed 2.5%-4.3%. Partners Group, Amrize, Roche Holding, Swiss Life Holding, Galderma Group, Novartis, Alcon, SGS, Lindt & Spruengli, Sandoz Group, Schindler Ps and Richemont also settled with strong gains. UBS Group closed down by 6.25% despite reporting a net profit of $1.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025, up 56% from the same period a year ago. The stock fell probably due to a sharp drop in net new assets in the Global Wealth Management division, which includes UBS' advisory business. Holcim tumbled nearly 8%. VAT Group and ABB ended lower by 2.16% and 1.29%, respectively.

Europe
European stocks closed broadly higher on Wednesday with investors digesting a slew of earnings updates and regional economic data, in addition to following the developments on the geopolitical front, and awaiting the monetary policy announcements from the European Central Bank and the Bank of England. The ECB and BoE, scheduled to make their policy announcements on Thursday, are widely expected to hold their interest rates unchanged. The focus will be on the banks for clues about future policy moves. The pan European Stoxx 600 edged up 0.03%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 climbed 0.85% and France's CAC 40 moved up 1.01%. Germany's DAX ended down by 0.72%, while France's CAC 40 closed up by 1.01%. Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and Turkiye closed higher. Denmark shares plunged sharply with the benchmark OMXC 20 tanking nearly 7%. Iceland, Netherlands, Russia and Spain ended weak. In the UK market, Entain soared 10.5%. DCC gained about 8%. Beazley moved up nearly 7% after Zurich Insurance Group said it has agreed in principle on the key financial terms of a possible all-cash offer to acquire Beazley plc, valuing the UK specialty insurer at up to 1,335 pence per share, or about 8.0 billion pounds. GSK climbed nearly 7% on reporting better-than-expected profit in the fourth quarter. Profit attributable to shareholders increased to 636 million pounds or 15.8 pence per share from 414 million pounds or 10.1 pence per share a year ago. BT Group, Croda International, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, Intercontiental Hotels Group, Bunzl, Diageo, Ashtead Group, Marks & Spencer, Coca-Cola HBC, Mondi, Hiscox, Burberry Group, Berkeley Group Holdings, Land Securities, Admiral Group and Tesco gained 3%-6%. Mining stocks Antofagasta and Anglo American Plc lost 6.2% and 3.8%, respectively. Fresnillo drifted down 3.2% and Endeavour Mining closed down by about 2.3%, while Glencore lost 1.1%. RightMove, Barclays, Babcock International, BAE Systems, The Sage Group, St. James's Place, Polar Capital Technology Trust, Scottish Mortgage and Rolls-Royce Holdings also ended notably lower. In the German market, Brenntag climbed 9%. Deutsche Telekom, Continental, Symrise and BASF gained 5%-6%.

United States
Technology stocks showed another significant move to the downside during trading on Wednesday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq slumped to its lowest closing level in over a month after flirting with its record highs just a week. The Nasdaq ended the day off its lows of the session but still tumbled 350.61 points or 1.5 percent to 22,904.58. The S&P 500 also slid 35.09 points or 0.5 percent to 6,882.72, while the narrower Dow climbed 260.31 points or 0.5 percent to 49,501.30. The advance by the Dow came amid a sharp increase by shares of Amgen (AMGN), as the biotech company spiked by 8.2 percent after reporting better than expected fourth quarter results. 3M (MMM) and Nike (NKE) also surged by more than 5 percent, contributing to the rebound by the blue chip index. Meanwhile, traders continued to rotate out of the tech sector, with semiconductor stocks showing a substantial move to the downside. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) helped lead the sector lower, plummeting by 17.3 percent after reporting better than expected fourth quarter results but providing first quarter guidance that disappointed some analysts. Computer hardware and networking stocks also saw considerable weakness, resulting in the steep drop by the Nasdaq. On the other hand, pharmaceutical stocks saw significant strength on the day, driving the NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical Index up by 3.1 percent. Energy, housing and airline stocks also moved notably higher, helping to partly offset the weakness in the tech sector. In U.S. economic news, payroll processor ADP released a report showing private sector employment in the U.S. increased by much less than expected in the month of January.

Asia
Prices on the Asian stock exchanges fell sharply over the course of Thursday. The Nikkei fell by 0.9 per cent and the technology-heavy Kospi by as much as 3.4 per cent. In Tokyo, Softbank fell by 7 per cent, also after the shares of its subsidiary Arm Holdings fell overnight. NEC fell by 8.2 per cent and Advantest lost 5.2 per cent. In Seoul, SK Hynix loses 5.2 per cent after weak US data.

Bonds
In the U.S. bond market, treasuries showed a lack of direction before closing roughly flat for the second straight day. The yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, crept up by less than a basis point to 4.275 percent.

Analysis
UBS raises target for Intesa Sanpaolo to EUR 6.55 (6.45) – Buy
Barclays lowers Publicis to Equalweight (Overweight) – Target EUR 95 (115)
HSBC lowers Sanofi target to EUR 95 (98) – Buy

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