Intel’s turnaround effort gathered momentum as it reported sales growth in its core product line of PC processors and shrinking costs across the company, the result of layoffs and other cuts that have accelerated this year. The beleaguered chipmaker, which has fallen badly behind rivals like Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices in the race to develop powerful AI chips, reported on Thursday net income of $4.1 billion for the third quarter compared with a year-earlier loss of $16.6 billion. On a call with analysts, Intel Chief Executive Lip-Bu Tan highlighted “the steady progress we are making to rebuild the company” and said his priority is keeping up the pace toward making its businesses more efficient. “While we still have a long way to go, we are taking the right steps,” he said. Intel is burning through its inventory of PC chips faster than it had expected, as businesses rush to refresh office computers with the latest version of the Windows operating system, Chief Financial Officer David Zinsner said in an interview. “Now we’re dealing with supply,” Zinsner said. “Demand is much stronger than we anticipated when we planned our supply for the year.”

The Swiss market ended on a weak note on Thursday after languishing in negative territory right through the day's session. The benchmark SMI settled with a loss of 57.16 points or 0.45% at 12,557.27, slighly off the day's low of 12,546.97. Roche Holding ended 3.17% down. Nestle and Amrize closed lower by 1.47% and 1.21%, respectively. Sonova, Swisscom, Partners Group and Givaudan lost 0.6 to 1%. Holcim and Novartis ended modestly lower. Lonza Group and Galderma Group gained 2.5% each. Galderma raised its full-year guidance following strong sales growth in the third quarter. Galderma said sales in the third quarter rose 21% on year at constant currency, mainly thanks to strong performance of its Injectable Aesthetics and its Nemluvio dermatology portfolio. SGS and Sandoz Group climbed 2.14% and 2.08%, respectively. ABB, Schindler Ps, Swiss Life Holding, Logitech International and Richemont gained 1 to 1.6%.

Europe
European stocks closed higher on Thursday with investors mostly reacting to corporate earnings announcements. Concerns about geopolitical tensions and the potential impact of tariffs on global economic growth weighed a bit and limited markets' upside. EU countries today formally adopted a 19th package of sanctions against Russia for its war against Ukraine that includes a ban on Russian liquefied natural gas imports. The pan European Stoxx 600 climbed 0.37%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 closed 0.67% up, while Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40, both gained 0.23%. Switzerland's SMI ended down 0.45%. Among other markets in Europe, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Turkiye closed higher. Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Ireland and Russia ended weak. In the UK market, Rentokil Initial soared nearly 8.5% after the company's third-quarter organic revenue growth topped estimates. London Stock Exchange Group surged 7.2% after raising its margin guidance. The company has also announced a 1 billion pound buyback. Fresnillo climbed 5.3%. BP, Endeavour Mining, Shell, Burberry Group, Weir Group, Babcock International, Experian, Centrica, Polar Capital Technology Trust and Rio Tinto gained 1.8 to 4%. Easyjet ended 2.8% down. Ashtead Group closed lower by about 2.5%. Schroders, Relx, St. James's Place, Legal & General Entain, Diageo, Compass Group, WPP and Severn Trent lost 1 to 2%. Intercontinental Hotels Group closed lower by about 1.25% despite Q3 room revenue coming in above estimates.

United States
Following the weakness seen in the previous session, stocks moved back to the upside during trading on Thursday. The major averages all moved higher on the day, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq showing a notable advance. The major averages pulled back off their best levels going into the end of the day but remained in positive territory. The Nasdaq jumped 201.40 points or 0.9 percent to 22,941.80, the S&P 500 climbed 39.04 points or 0.6 percent to 6,738.44 and the Dow rose 144.20 points or 0.3 percent at 46,734.61. Energy stocks saw substantial strength on the day as the price of crude oil skyrocketed after the Trump administration announced sanctions on Russia's two largest oil companies. The Treasury Department announced sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil, citing Russia's 'lack of serious commitment to a peace process to end the war in Ukraine.' President Donald Trump recently expressed some optimism about ending the drawn-out Russia-Ukraine war before suddenly canceling a planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Reflecting the strength in the energy sector, the Philadelphia Oil Service Index spiked by 4.8 percent and the NYSE Arca Oil Index jumped by 3.0 percent. SanDisk (SNDK) helped lead the sector higher, with the data storage device maker soaring by 13.7 percent to a record closing high. The strength on Wall Street came as the markets shrugged off an initially negative reaction to corporate earnings news from companies like Tesla (TSLA) and IBM Corp. (IBM). Shares of Tesla showed a significant turnaround over the course of the session, jumping by 2.3 percent even though the electric vehicle maker reported weaker than expected third quarter earnings. Tech giant IBM ended the day down by 0.8 percent but was well off its lows. The company reported third quarter earnings that exceeded analyst estimates but slowing growth in its core cloud computing business. Meanwhile, shares of Honeywell (HON) shot up by 6.8 percent after the industrial giant reported third quarter results that beat analyst estimates on both the top and bottom lines.

Asia
Hopes for an easing of trade tensions between the US and China are causing share prices to rise on the stock markets in East Asia on Friday. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index is up 1.5 per cent to 49,367 points, with the yen also helping. It continues to trend downwards, which makes exports by Japanese companies cheaper on a dollar basis.

Bonds
In the U.S. bond market, treasuries gave back ground after trending higher over the past several sessions. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, climbed 3.8 basis points to 3.991 percent.

Analysis
Bank of America raises Reckitt Benckiser to 6,500 (6,000) p – Buy
UBS raises Barclays to 455 (430) p – Buy
Morgan Stanley lowers Teamviewer to EUR 8.35 (13.10) – Equal weight


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