Abbott Laboratories has agreed to pay $385 million to settle allegations related to its management of a baby formula facility where deadly bacteria was suspected of causing infant deaths, the Justice Department said Monday. The settlement is a more lenient outcome than some prosecutors had advocated for, believing they had evidence to criminally charge Abbott under a law that has been used to pursue other businesses for selling contaminated foods, the Journal previously reported. But senior Justice Department officials believed criminal charges would have been heavy handed and closed the probe. They opted instead for the civil settlement, which claws back money the company earned from selling formula through federally funded nutrition programs. The department said in a Monday statement the company knowingly sold the government formula and other products that were “made in an environment that put the products at unacceptable risk of microorganism contamination,” rendering them less safe.

The Switzerland market ended on a strong note on Monday after holding firm right through the day's session thanks to sustained buying at several counters. The benchmark SMI settled with a gain of 103.27 points or 0.75% at 13,878.54, after moving between 13,829.94 and 13,998.88. Roche moved up 5%. Lindt & Spruengli, Nestle, Alcon, Kuehne + Nagel and Novartis climbed 1.7%-2.2%. Sonova, Givaudan, Straumann Holding, Swisscom, Zurich Insurance and Swiss Re gained 1%-1.5%. Lonza Group, Galderma Group and Schindler Ps posted modest gains. VAT Group dropped 7.65%. ABB dropped about 4.1%. UBS Group, Holcim, Sika, Amrize, Logitech International, Richemont and Partners Group also ended notably lower. In economic news, Switzerland's producer and import prices increased for the first time in four months in August, the Federal Statistical Office reported. The producer and import price index posted a monthly increase of 0.7% in August, reversing a 0.1% decrease in July. That was faster than the 0.1% rise expected by economists. The producer price index decreased 1.3% from last month, while import prices climbed 0.8%. On a yearly basis, the decline in producer and import prices eased to 0.7% from 2.1% in July.

Europe
European stocks closed weak on Monday amid concerns about rising oil prices and AI-related worries even as the UK market climbed higher, riding on gains in pharmaceuticals, energy and consumer sectors. The pan European Stoxx 600 dropped 0.4%. Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 closed down by 0.81% and 0.86%, respectively, while the UK's FTSE 100 moved up 0.44%. Switzerland's SMI climbed 0.75%. Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Türkiye ended notably lower. Belgium, Denmark and Russia closed higher, while Netherlands and Norway ended flat. In the UK market, mining and bank stocks shed ground due to sustained selling pressure. The Sage Group and Relx moved up 5.3% and 5.2%, respectively. Smith & Nephew, British American Tobacco, Coca-Cola HBC, Tesco and Unilever gained 3.2%-4%. GSK moved up 4.8% after positive clinical data for its lung-cancer drug Jideytro. Despite a setback for Etcamah, a breast-cancer drug, shares of AstraZeneca gained nearly 4%. LSEG, Unilever, Experian, Pearson, Imperial Brands, Haleon, Diageo, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, Reckitt Benckiser, Sainsbury (J), Autotrader Group and BAE Systems also moved up sharply. Halma, Antofagasta, Weir, Fresnillo, Barratt Redrow, Barclays, Polar Capital Technology Trust, Glencore, Centrica, IAG, IMI, Rio Tinto, National Grid, British Land, Endeavour Mining, Marks & Spencer, Natwest Group and Rolls-Royce Holdings lost 2%-5.6%.

United States
U.S. stocks fell after Anthropic Chief Executive Dario Amodei called for a slowdown in artificial-intelligence development and as another increase in oil futures triggered interest-rate worries. The Dow Jones Industrial Average retreated 152.09 points, or 0.29%, to 52421.20. The S&P 500 lost 37.00 points, or 0.48%, to 7619.98 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 146.62 points, or 0.56%, to 26186.41. Also weighing on the stock market were fears that AI spending would be curtailed because of concerns about the safety of the emerging technology. On the stock market, the potential slowdown had the biggest impact on semiconductor companies. Their shares have surged for much of 2026 alongside increases in the price of their chips. If Anthropic, OpenAI and others "pace" development of their AI models, that could also slow demand for data centers, hurting chip prices and sales. Nvidia shares slid 3.4% to $210.96. The PHLX "SOX" Semiconductor sector index shed 5.9%. Corning, which produces the fiber-optic materials necessary to wire data centers, plunged 14% to $143.60. Dell Chief Executive Michael Dell's family office DFO Management led a consortium that agreed to take insurance brokerage Baldwin Group private for about $7.7 billion in cash and assumed debt. Bank of America shares tumbled 5.1% to $59.47 after Chief Executive Brian Moynihan said investment-banking revenue could be down and trading-desk revenue flat in the current quarter compared to year-earlier levels.

Asia
Asian stock markets are trading lower on Tuesday, following Wall Street’s negative lead. The Topix in Tokyo is down by 0.7 per cent. Chip stocks are now only edging lower: Tokyo Electron and Renesas are each down by half a per cent, whilst Advantest is down by 1.8 per cent. SoftBank, on the other hand, has staged a strong recovery, rising by 7.8 per cent, whilst Kioxia has gained 0.9 per cent.

Bonds
The yield on the policy-sensitive two-year U.S. Treasury declined 0.010 percentage point to 4.632%. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell 0.014 percentage point to 4.960%. During the session, the 10-year yield topped the 5% level for the first time since 2023. At its peak, the 10-year yield was the highest since July 19, 2007. The yield on the 30-year bond declined 0.027 percentage point to 5.327%, but still finished with its third-highest close of the year.

Analysis
MS downgrades Stellantis to Underweight (Equal Weight) – Target price EUR 4.50 (5.70)
BoA raises its Unicredit target price to EUR 113 (100) – Buy
UBS upgrades Campari to Buy (Neutral) – target price EUR 7 (6.10)


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