Google’s parent company reported a 16% surge in third-quarter revenue, with growth in its digital-advertising and cloud-computing units helping to finance robust artificial-intelligence spending. Sales reached a record $102.3 billion for Google-parent Alphabet, ahead of analyst expectations, and net income was about $35 billion, a 33% increase over the same period a year ago. Shares rose more than 6% in after-hours trading. Like other large tech companies, Google is pouring tens of billions of dollars into AI development. It lifted its estimates for capital expenditures this year to a range of $91 billion to $93 billion, up from $52.5 billion in 2024. The company said it expects a substantial increase in capital expenditures next year. Much of the money will be used to build data centers to develop and run AI models. Google’s cloud division, which sells computing power to data centers, has grown as a result of the race to develop AI. The cloud unit had $15.2 billion in quarterly revenue, up 34% from the same quarter last year.

After spending a few minutes in positive territory at the start, Swiss stock market's benchmark SMI drifted down and then stayed weak right through the trading session on Wednesday, with investors digesting corporate earnings updates and looking ahead to the Federal Reserve's rate decision due later in the day. The SMI ended down by 46.05 points or 0.37% at 12,314.10. The index, which edged up to 12,374.43 at the start, touched a low of 12,277.25 in the penultimate hour of the session. Lindt & Spruengli ended nearly 3% down. Givaudan and Geberit lost 2.08% and 1.82%, respectively. UBS Group shares ended notably lower despite reporting significantly higher profit in its third quarter with lower expenses and higher revenues. In the third quarter, net profit attributable to shareholders climbed 74% to $2.48 billion from last year's $1.43 billion. Earnings per share were $0.76, up 77 percent from $0.43 a year ago. The latest results included net litigation reserve releases of $668 million, mainly due to the resolution of legal matters related to Credit Suisse's Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities business and UBS's legacy cross-border activities in France. Nestle, Swisscom, Lonza Group and Zurich Insurance lost 1 to 1.12%, respectively.

Europe
European stocks turned in a mixed performance on Wednesday with investors reacting to a slew of earnings announcements, and looking ahead to the monetary policy announcement from the Federal Reserve later in the day, and the upcoming meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. The pan European Stoxx 600 edged down 0.1%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 climbed 0.61%, Germany's DAX closed down by 0.64% and France's CAC 40 ended 0.19% down, while Switzerland's SMI drifted down 0.37%. Among other markets in Europe, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Russia, Spain and Turkiye closed higher. Finland, Iceland and Sweden ended weak, while Netherlands, Norway and Poland closed little changed. In the UK market, shares of mining companies had a good outing. Glencore, Fresnillo, Antofagasta, Rio Tinto and Anglo American Plc posted strong gains. GSK climbed 5.7% on upbeat results. The British drug major announced that its profit before tax surged to 2.46 billion pounds in the third quarter, from last year's 64 million pounds. On an after-tax basis, profit attributable to shareholders was 2.01 billion pounds or 49.1 pence per share, compared to loss of 58 million pounds or 1.4 pence a year ago. Looking ahead for fiscal 2025, the company now expects core earnings per share growth of 10 - 12%, while it previously expected towards the top end of the 6 - 8% range. Next surged 8.8% after the company raised its earnings guidance. Beazley, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, Polar Capital Technology Trust, Metlen Energy & Metals, HSBC Holdings, BP and Shell gained 1.5 to 3%. Relx, RightMove, The Sage Group, Rentokil Initial, Compass Group, Vodafone Group, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners and LSE ended lower by 2 to 3%.

United States
All three of the stock market’s major indexes were poised to notch fresh records Wednesday after the Federal Reserve voted for a widely expected quarter-point interest-rate cut. Then Jerome Powell took the mic. Facing a dearth of economic data during the government shutdown, the Fed chair threw cold water on Wall Street’s hopes of an additional cut at the central bank’s next meeting. Stocks swooned into the red, later clawing back some of that ground to finish the trading session mixed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average retreated by 0.2%, or about 74 points, while the S&P 500 finished flat. The Nasdaq composite, driven by many of the highflying tech companies at the heart of the artificial-intelligence boom, advanced 0.5%. Central bankers and investors have been flying partially blind as they gauge the state of the U.S. economy, looking at private metrics for clues about a weakening jobs market and inflation that has remained stubbornly above the Fed’s 2% target. Caterpillar shares surged 12%, their steepest one-day increase since 2009, thanks in part to strong demand for power generators at data centers. The better-than-expected results came despite new costs related to tariffs. At the same time, Nvidia continued its record-breaking run to become the first company ever valued at $5 trillion. The chip designer is now worth more than the S&P 500’s energy, real-estate and materials stocks combined, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Apple, meanwhile, closed with a market cap above $4 trillion for the first time.

Asia
Following recent record highs on some of the region's stock markets, Asian trading centres are showing mixed results on Thursday. Japanese stocks turn positive in late trading following the monetary policy decision. In China, the indices are barely moving.

Bonds
On the U.S. bond market, Powell's statements were reflected in rising yields, especially as the probability of an interest rate cut in December fell to just under 60 per cent on the interest rate futures market, down from 90 per cent the day before. This pushed the 10-year U.S. yield up to 4.056%, according to Tradeweb, from 3.982% - its largest one-day climb since July.

Analysis
UBS raises Danone target to EUR 86 (78) – Buy
UBS lowers MTU Aero Engines target to EUR 390 (400) – Neutral
Bank of America raises Capgemini target to EUR 181 (178) – Buy

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