Beazley shares hit an all-time high after Zurich Insurance Group said it submitted a plan to buy the London-listed insurance company for 7.67 billion pounds ($10.27 billion). Beazley shares were up 335 pence, or 41%, at 11.55 pounds in European trading. Zurich said Monday that it was offering to buy the company for 1,280 pence a share, a 56% premium to its closing price of 820 pence on Friday. Zurich said the offer tabled followed a previously submitted proposal of 1,230 pence for each Beazley share on Jan. 4. It added that a merger would create a specialty insurance company with $15 billion of gross written premiums. Zurich has until Feb. 16 to either make a formal offer to buy Beazley or walk away under U.K. Takeover Panel rules.

The Swiss market ended notably lower on Monday, in line with most of the markets across Europe, as concerns about geopolitical tensions and U.S. President Donald Trump's new tariffs threat rendered the mood bearish. The Swiss benchmark SMI ended with a loss of 136.55 points or 1.02% at 13,277.04. The index, which stayed weak right through the day, touched a low of 13,242.78. Among SMI components, only Swisscom (up 1.18%), Lindt & Spruengli (up 0.45%) and Helvetia Baloise Holding (up 0.3%) managed to close on the positive side. Alcon ended down by 4.35%. Kuehne + Nagel drifted down 3.17%, while Galderma Group, Sonova, Lonza Group, Richemont, Amrize, VAT Group, Straumann Holding and ABB lost 2 to 2.7%. Partners Group ended nearly 2% down. Julius Baer, Logitech International, Givaudan, UBS Group and Schindler Ps also ended notably lower.

Europe
European stocks tumbled on Monday amid rising geopolitical tensions after U.S. President Donald Trump doubled down on his plan to acquire Greenland. Trump said NATO had warned Denmark for years about the 'Russian threat' to Greenland and claimed Copenhagen had failed to act. 'Now it is time, and it will be done!!!' Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform ahead of this week's World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos. The U.S. President's announcement of a 10% tariff on several EU countries from next month, which raises the tariff on all imports to US to 25%, and reports that EU is consideriang retaliatory move against the U.S. weighed on stocks. The EU is reported to be considering tariffs of 93 billion euros of US goods or restricting US firms' access to its internal market. The pan European Stoxx 600 ended down by 1.19%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 closed lower by 0.39%, Germany's DAX ended with a loss of 1.34% and France's CAC fell 1.76%. Switzerland's SMI lost 1.02%. Among other markets in Europe, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Iceland, Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden closed with sharp to moderate losses. Greece, Russia and Turkiye ended higher. In the UK market, Diploma, Melrose Industries, Games Workshop, Ashtead Group and 3i Group lost 3.2 to 4%. Burberry Group, Halma, Relx, JD Sports Fashion, Scottish Mortgage, Rentokil Initial, Auto Trader Group, Metlen Energy & Metals, Convatec Group, Schroders and Croda International ended lower by 2 to 3%. Hiscoc soared 9.1%. Fresnillo closed with a gain of 6.7% and BT Group surged 3.6%. Endeavour Mining, Imperial Brands, Admiral Group, Antofagasta, Next, Severn Trent, Vodafone Group, British American Tobacco, Prudential and Phoenix Group Holdings also ended with impressive gains. In the German market, Adidas closed down by about 5%. Qiagen, Porsche Automobil Holding, BMW, Siemens Healthineers, Deutsche Post, SAP, Deutsche Bank and Daimler Truck Holding lost 3 to 4.1%. Volkswagen, Brenntag, Mercedes-Benz, Beiersdorf, Commerzbank, Siemens, Fresenius, BASF, Siemens Energy and Merck also ended notably lower. Bayer climbed nearly 7% after the US Supreme Court agreed to review the 'Durnell' glyphosate case'. The court agreed Friday to review Bayer's challenge to a $1.25 million Missouri jury verdict over claims the German company failed to warn that Roundup could cause cancer. Deutsche Telekom gained about 2.1% and Rheinmetall ended with a gain of about 1.1%. In the French market, STMicroElectronics shed more than 5%. LVMH, Kering, Dassault Systemes, Hermes International, Airbus and Capgemini lost 3 to 4.5%.

United States
U.S. stock markets were closed on Monday in observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday.

Asia
Asian markets were mostly lower as investors watched for the European Union's response to potential U.S. tariffs. Earlier today, the People's Bank of China has kept its 1-year and 5-year loan prime rates unchanged at 3 percent and 3.5 percent, respectively as expected.

Bonds
The U.S. term premium - or the extra compensation investors demand for holding longer-duration bonds - looks too low, said Pictet Asset Management's Christopher Preece and Arun Sai in a note. The risk is that a U.S. policy mistake causes a selloff in longer dated Treasurys, driving yields higher, said investment manager Preece and senior strategist Sai. “Our base case is for U.S 10-year Treasury yields to stay below 5%, but higher yields remain a significant tail risk,” they said.

Analysis
HSBC raises the ABB target to CHF 55 (50) – Hold
HSBC lowers the BP target to 475 (480) GBp – Hold
Morgan Stanley lowers LVMH to Equalweight (Overweight) – Target EUR 635

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