Shares of Bank of America rallied Wednesday, after the banking giant reported first-quarter profit and revenue that rose more than expected, boosted by strength in its sales and trading business. Boosted by recent volatility as a result of the Iran conflict, BofA’s BAC equities business saw revenue soar 30% to record levels. An easier regulatory environment, which has boosted merger and acquisition activity, helped drive a 21% increase in investment-banking fees. “[W]e saw healthy client activity, including solid consumer spending and stable asset quality, indicating a resilient American economy,” said CEO Brian Moynihan. The stock climbed 2.6% toward a two-month high in recent morning trading. It has run up 17.2% since it closed at a seven-month low on March 13, and is trading less than 5% below its Jan. 6 record close of $57.25. For the first quarter, total revenue rose 7.2% from a year ago to $30.27 billion, above the average analyst estimate compiled by FactSet of $29.95 billion. That included a 9% rise in net interest income to $15.75 billion, beating the FactSet consensus of $15.6 billion.

Despite spending much of the day's session in positive territory, the Switzerland market ended weak on Wednesday with stocks drifting lower in late afternoon trades as the mood turned cautious with investors looking ahead to a fresh round of ceasefire talks between the U.S. and Iran. The benchmark SMI, which climbed to 13,321.88 around mid-afternoon, ended the session with a loss of 50.19 points or 0.38% at 13,219.58. Lindt & Spruengli shed about 2.6%. Richemont dropped nearly 2%. Novartis and Amrize both ended lower by 1.6%. Nestle, Swisscom, Holcim, Galderma Group, Schindler Ps and Roche lost 0.3%-1.2%. Partners Group climbed about 3.7%. VAT Group and Straumann Holding gained 2.65% and 2.55%, respectively. Logitech International moved up 2.1%. UBS Group, Zurich Insurance, Julius Baer, Helvetia Baloise Holding, Lonza Group, Swiss Re, Sonova, Kuehne + Nagel and Givaudan gained 0.5%-1.1%.

Europe
European markets closed mostly weak on Wednesday as investors reacted to a slew of corporate earnings updates and looked ahead to a second round of U.S.-Iran peace talks, proposed to be held later in the week. The pan European Stoxx 600 ended down by 0.43%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 shed 0.47%, France's CAC 40 closed lower by 0.64% and Germany's DAX edged up 0.09%. Switzerland's SMI settled lower by 0.38%. Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden ended weak. Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Poland, Russia and Türkiye closed higher. Iceland and Ireland ended flat. In the UK market, Rank Group surged 12.5%. The gambling operator raised its full-year underlying operating profit guidance after reporting a 5% year-on-year increase in fiscal Q3 2025-26 net gaming revenue. Antofagasta moved higher. After posting a drop in Q1 copper production, the miner said it expects output to rise steadily through the remainder of the year. Entain climbed nearly 5%. Barratt Redrow, ICG, AutoTrader Group, Experian, Relx, The Sage Group, Standard Life and Pearson gained 2%-3.5%. Imperial Brands, Airtel Africa and Fresnillo lost 3%-3.6%. GSK, Associated British Foods, Coca-Cola HBC, Burberry Group, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Weir Group, Halma, IMI, Endeavour Mining and Glencore shed 1.3%-2.7%. In the German market, Brenntag, Rheinmetall, SAP, Zalando, Adidas and Scout24 closed notably higher. Fresenius Medical Care, Fresenius, Continental, BASF, Heidelberg Materials, Gea Group, Deutsche Post and Daimler Truck Holding lost 1%-2.5%. BMW drifted down by about 0.7%. BMW Group announced that vehicles sales (BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce) dropped down by 3.5% in the first quarter of 2026, compared to sales in the year-ago quarter. Demand for petrol and diesel cars stayed slightly higher than last year, BMW said. In the French market, Edenred climbed nearly 4%. Publicis Group moved up by about 3.1%.

United States
Following the rally seen over the two previous sessions, stocks showed another strong move to the upside during trading on Wednesday. With the continued upward move, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 reached new record closing highs. The tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 376.93 points or 1.6 percent to 24,016.02 and the S&P 500 advanced 55.57 points or 0.8 percent to 7,022.95, although the narrower bucked the uptrend and dipped 72.27 points or 0.2 percent to 48,463.72. The extended surge by the Nasdaq partly reflected strength among tech stocks, with Broadcom (AVGO) helping to lead the sector higher. Shares of Broadcom spiked by 4.2 percent after the chip maker announced a multi-year, multi-generation strategic partnership to support Meta's (META) rapidly scaling artificial intelligence compute infrastructure. Meanwhile, the modest pullback by the Dow partly reflected a steep decline by shares of Caterpillar (CAT), with the construction equipment maker tumbling by 3.0 percent. Traders also continued to express optimism about an resolution of the conflict in the Middle East even as they await additional details about another round of peace talks between the U.S. and Iran. In an interview with Fox Business, President Donald Trump expressed confidence the war is 'very close to over' and reiterated his claim that Iran wants to make a deal 'very badly.' Trump also predicted that the 'stock market is going to boom' when the conflict between the U.S., Israel and Iran is finally over. Software stocks showed a substantial move to the upside on the day, with the Dow Jones U.S. Software Index surging by 4.6 percent. Considerable strength was also visible among brokerage stocks, as reflected by the 1.9 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Broker/Dealer Index. On the other hand, gold stocks moved sharply lower amid a decrease by the price of the precious metal, dragging the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index down by 3.1 percent. A report showing a bigger than expected deterioration in homebuilder confidence also weighed on housing stocks, resulting in a 2.0 percent slump by the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index.

Asia
East Asian stock markets continued their upward trend on Thursday, with some hitting new record highs. They followed the lead of Wall Street, where the S&P 500 index reached an all-time high, as did the technology-heavy Nasdaq index, buoyed by strong corporate earnings. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index hit a record high, whilst in Seoul the Kospi was just below that level.

Bonds
In the U.S. bond market, treasuries gave back ground after moving higher over the two previous sessions. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, rose 2.6 basis points to 4.282 percent.

Analysis
UBS raises Moeller Maersk to 14,600 (13,300) DKK – Neutral
UBS lowers Diageo to 1,600 (1,730) p – Neutral
Jefferies raises Sika to 181 (180) CHF – Buy

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