Nvidia reported a 94% increase in profit and record sales for the fourth quarter, helping ease concerns over a possible artificial-intelligence bubble that rippled through markets in recent months. The chip maker reported net income of $43 billion, up from $22.1 billion in the year-earlier quarter, on sales of $68.1 billion, up 73% from $39.3 billion a year earlier, easily beating consensus estimates. Analysts polled by FactSet had predicted net income of $37.5 billion and revenue of $66.1 billion for the quarter. Data center hardware - the chips and networking equipment that Nvidia sells to AI and cloud-computing companies - accounted for 91.4% of the quarter’s sales, or $62.3 billion, and the segment’s revenue grew slightly faster than the company’s overall sales. “The simple way to think about it is, computing has changed,” Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang said on Wednesday’s earnings call with investors. “In this new world of AI, compute equals revenues…I am certain at this point that we’ve reached the inflection point” where agentic AI is upending how business is done worldwide and selling AI tools is starting to generate real profits.

The Swiss stock market ended Wednesday's session in the red, bucking the trend of other European markets and Wall Street, which were eagerly awaiting the release of US giant Nvidia's results. Investors were cautious due to growing tensions between Iran and the United States. On the Swiss stock market, the flagship SMI index closed the day down 0.14% at 13,977.10 points, after a high of 14,029.88 points and a low of 13,949.16 points. The SLI, on the other hand, ended up 0.44% at 2,212.36 points, while the SPI gained 0.10% to 19,217.92 points. Most blue chips ended the day in positive territory, led by Sandoz (+10.3%). The substitute drug giant delivered growth and profitability last year, its second full year outside the Novartis fold. With plans to capitalize on the numerous patent expires on the horizon, the Basel-based group is looking forward to a bright future. Alcon (+4.4%) followed in second place and VAT Group (+3.6%) completed the podium. Between October and the end of December, the ophthalmic products giant posted revenues of $2.70 billion, up 9% year-on-year, or 7% at constant exchange rates. The multinational ended the financial year with revenues of £10.32 billion, compared with £9.84 billion in 2024.

Europe
The major European stock markets opened higher on Wednesday and spent the entire session in the green, closing near daily high for the second straight day. European stocks traded at record highs on Wednesday after Anthropic announced new partnerships, helping ease artificial-intelligence disruption concerns. The AI startup launched new updates to Claude Cowork that allow companies to integrate the productivity tool into a host of enterprise apps. Germany's DAX was up 189.69 points or 0.76 percent to finish at 25,175.94, while the FTSE in London jumped 125.82 points or 1.18 percent to close at 10,806.41 and the CAC 40 in France added 39.86 points or 0.47 percent to end at 8,559.07. In Germany, Beiersdorf plummeted 3.69 percent, while RWE surged 3.19 percent, Siemens Energy spiked 2.05 percent, Deutsche Bank rallied 1.53 percent, Deutsche Telekom jumped 1.02 percent, Infineon Technologies climbed 0.85 percent, Deutsche Borse slumped 0.77 percent, Deutsche Post added 0.67 percent and Zalando gained 0.54 percent. In London, Haleon tumbled 6.85 percent, while Experian spiked 3.94 percent, Centrica vaulted 2.91 percent, Prudential expanded 2.49 percent, Tesco slumped 1.80 percent, easyJet sank 1.76 percent, Vodafone Group increased 1.29 percent, British American Tobacco was up 1.23 percent, Rightmove dipped 0.17 percent and Rolls-Royce was unchanged. In France, Pernod Ricard cratered 7.93 percent, while Societe Generale soared 3.17 percent, Credit Agricole rallied 2.76 percent, Engie jumped 2.08 percent, BNP Paribas collected 2.00 percent, Worldline improved 1.44 percent, Vivendi added 0.51 percent, Danone gained 0.50 percent and Sanofi rose 0.22 percent. In economic news, Eurozone inflation slowed in January due to the sharp fall in energy prices, data from Eurostat showed Wednesday. The harmonized index of consumer prices rose 1.7 percent on a yearly basis in January, in line with estimate released on February 4. This followed December's 2.0 percent increase.

United States
Stocks moved mostly higher during trading on Wednesday, adding to the strong gains posted in the previous session. With the continued advance, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 more than offset the steep losses posted on Monday. The major averages ended the day just off their highs of the session. The Nasdaq jumped 288.40 points or 1.3 percent to 23,152.08, the S&P 500 climbed 56.06 points or 0.8 percent to 6,946.13 and the Dow rose 307.65 points or 0.6 percent to 49,482.15. The continued strength on Wall Street partly reflected optimism ahead of the release of earnings news from AI chipmaker and market leader Nvidia (NVDA). Software giants Salesforce (CRM) and Snowflake (SNOW) are among the companies due to report their quarterly results later in the day. Tech giant IBM Corp. (IBM) also surged by 3.6 percent, continuing to regain ground following a nosedive on Monday after UBS upgraded its rating on the company's stock to Neutral from Sell. Shares of Oracle (ORCL) also shot up by 1.2 percent after Oppenheimer upgraded its rating on the software giant's stock to Outperform from Perform. Software stocks turned in some of the market's best performances on the day, with the Dow Jones U.S. Software Index spiking by 3.1 percent.

Asia
Following the recent record highs in Tokyo, Seoul and Sydney, Asian stock markets continued to march upwards on Thursday.

Bonds
In the U.S. bond market, treasuries saw modest weakness after ending the previous session roughly flat. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, inched up by 1.5 basis points to 4.048 percent.

Analysis
UBS raises Bayer target to EUR 48 (32) – Neutral
Bank of America raises HSBC target to 1,500 (1,450) p – Buy
Bank of America raises ASMI target to EUR 858 (792) – Buy

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