Shares in SpaceX soared 19% Friday as Elon Musk’s rocket maker pulled off the largest initial public offering ever and one of the smoothest in recent history. The company, valued at $1.77 trillion when it sold $75 billion worth of shares a day earlier, ended its first day of trading with a market value of around $2.2 trillion, putting it ahead of Broadcom and Tesla to make it the sixth-most valuable public company in the U.S. The offering handed longstanding SpaceX investors and employees billions in collective gains and turned Musk into the world’s first trillionaire. It was powered by an army of individual investors who bought into Musk’s moonshot vision of putting data centers in space to support the rise of artificial intelligence. Ahead of the debut, some on Wall Street wondered whether the financial system’s machinery would support the sheer size of the offering and whether investors would show up en masse for an unprofitable venture that sees much of its future revenue coming not from its space or internet businesses but rather from its nascent AI unit. Corporate-governance advocates criticized Musk for controlling more than 80% of the company’s voting rights, which makes it all but impossible to fire him or make other big changes without his support, and called for halting or boycotting the offering. The offering is a good omen for SpaceX’s AI-focused rivals Anthropic and OpenAI, both of which recently filed paperwork that sets them up to stage similarly megasize offerings later this year. SpaceX closed at $160.95 a share on Friday.

On Friday, the SMI rose 1.3 percent to 13,708 points. Across Europe, the travel and tourism sector led the markets. Among Swiss sector stocks, Zurich Airport gained 3.5 percent. Shares of Avolta, a duty-free retailer, closed 5.1 percent higher. In addition, construction sector stocks were among the top gainers, as this sector is also affected by the current closure of the Strait of Hormuz. In Switzerland, Sika was a particular standout, advancing 5.9 percent. Geberit rose 3.2 percent, Holcim also gained 3.2 percent, and Amrize rose 2.6 percent. Banking and luxury goods stocks were also in demand. UBS gained 3.7 percent and Julius Bär 2.1 percent. Richemont and Swatch climbed 3.0 and 3.6 percent, respectively. Kühne + Nagel (+0.5%) lagged behind the broader market. The company is benefiting indirectly from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Since transport via this waterway is currently virtually impossible, the logistics group has been able to offer its customers alternative routes by land or air.

Europe
European stock markets closed significantly higher on Friday, as investors hoped for an imminent resolution to the conflict between the United States and Iran. The Stoxx Europe 600 index rose 1.9% to 633.21 points. In Paris, the CAC 40 and the SBF 120 also gained 1.8% each. In Frankfurt, the DAX 40 added 1.8%, while the FTSE 100 climbed 1.6% in London. EXAIL TECHNOLOGIES (-16.2%): the civil and military robotics specialist announced Thursday evening that it had begun negotiations for the British investment fund Intermediate Capital Group (ICG) to divest from its subsidiary Exail Holding. ERAMET (+11%): an international investment consortium focused on critical minerals could acquire a stake in the French group Eramet, the Financial Times reported Friday, citing two sources familiar with the matter. MERSEN (+3.4%) and MAUREL & PROM (-3.2%) will return to the SBF 120 index starting with the June 22 trading session. Conversely, ELIOR (+1.7%) and NEXITY (+1.8%) will be removed from the SBF 120.

United States
On Friday, a big gain in financial stocks boosted the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The blue-chip index added around 354 points, or 0.7%. S&P 500 rose 0.5%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced about 0.3%. The Russell 2000 index of small companies gained 0.8%, notching a fresh record. EchoStar sank 11%. Investors have seen the satellite maker as a proxy for SpaceX because it reached a deal last year to sell Elon Musk’s company spectrum, in return for about 2% of SpaceX stock. Rocket Lab RKLB fell 11%. Index provider Nasdaq said the rocket launch company would join the Nasdaq 100 on June 22. Satellite maker AST SpaceMobile ASTS and launch infrastructure provider Firefly Aerospace FLY declined 16% and 19%, respectively. Adobe ADBE fell 6.8% after the software company reported better-than-expected second-quarter earnings and raised its full-year outlook but said CFO Dan Durn would leave the company for chips-and-networking company Marvell Technology MRVL. Advanced Micro Devices AMD climbed 4.7% to $511.57 after Citi upgraded the chip maker to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $575, up from $460. Astera Labs ALAB was flat, CoreWeave CRWV rose 5%, Nebius NBIS gained 4.6%, and Teradyne TER added 5.7%. The four AI-linked stocks will join the Nasdaq 100 on June 22, as part of a quarterly rebalancing. Lennar LEN fell 4.9% after the homebuilder’s second-quarter revenue missed Wall Street’s expectations, signaling that the housing market is still in a rut.

Asia
In Asia, major indexes broadly closed with gains, as a U.S.-Iran agreement on an interim peace deal spurred investor appetite for risk assets as well as a significant drop in oil prices. Stock indices surged with those in Seoul and Tokyo climbing to just below their record highs. The technology-heavy Kospi in Seoul jumped 5.4 percent, while in Tokyo the broad Topix index rose 3.2 percent, even though the local central bank is expected to raise interest rates there on Tuesday. Gains were more moderate in Hong Kong and Shanghai, where the markets added up to 0.9 percent, and in Sydney 1.2 percent.

Bonds
Long-dated U.S. government debt yields edged higher on Friday. The 10-year Treasury note yield added 1 basis point (0.01 percentage point) on Friday to 4.49%. The 2-year Treasury note yield advanced 2 basis points to 4.09%. Inflation remains a major concern ahead of the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) meeting next week, particularly following this week’s announcement of a sharp acceleration in producer prices in May.

Analysis
Jefferies downgrades Partners Group to CHF 760 (1,130) – Hold
Berenberg downgrades Burckhardt Compression to CHF 670 (720) – Buy
Berenberg upgrades SoftwareOne to CHF 10.00 (9.40) – Buy

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