Eli Lilly agreed to acquire Verve Therapeutics for about $1 billion upfront, adding a potential treatment for cardiovascular disease to its portfolio. Under the agreement, the pharmaceutical company will buy all of the gene-editing startup’s shares outstanding for $10.50 each, the companies said. Lilly said Tuesday it could pay up to another $300 million for Verve, contingent on the company’s lead treatment achieving certain clinical milestones. The purchase price represents a premium of about 113% to the 30-day volume-weighted average trading price of Verve’s common stock as of Monday’s close. Shares of Verve jumped 78% in midday trading Tuesday. Lilly shares were 1.2% lower. Verve is developing a pipeline of gene-editing medicines. Its lead program, Verve-102, is a potential first-in-class in vivo gene-editing medicine targeting PCSK9, a gene linked to cholesterol levels and cardiovascular health, Lilly said. The treatment is being evaluated in a Phase 1b clinical trial study and has been granted fast-track designation by the Food and Drug Administration.

The Swiss stock market continued to decline significantly on Tuesday. The SMI ultimately closed 0.69 percent lower at 12,007.06 points. This kept it just above the 12,000 mark after it had slipped to a daily low of 11,963 shortly after opening in the morning and regained over 130 points to reach a high of 12,095 just over an hour and a half later. The SLI, which includes the 30 most important stocks, fell by 0.65 percent to 1,962.82, and the broad SPI fell by 0.62 percent to 16,606.67 points. Twenty-six SLI stocks fell, and only four rose. In the end, all three heavyweights Nestlé (-0.3%), Roche (-0.5%) and Novartis (-0.8%) weighed on the index. Roche's share price changed direction several times on Tuesday. The pharmaceutical company suffered a setback when the primary endpoint was not achieved in a pivotal study with the blood cancer drug Venclexta. However, the results of the study have no impact on the already approved indications or ongoing studies. Pharmaceutical research is a tough business in which there are more setbacks than successes, according to market sentiment.

Europe
European stocks dropped on Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump urged residents of Tehran to 'immediately evacuate,' signaling potential escalation of the conflict. The DAX in Germany stumbled 264.47 points or 1.12 percent to finish at 23,434.65, while the FTSE in London sank 41.19 points or 0.46 percent to close at 8,834.03 and the CAC 40 in France lost 58.51 points or 0.76 percent to end at 7,683.73. In Germany, Fresenius Medical Care stumbled 4.47 percent, while Deutsche Telekom and Deutsche Bank both tanked 2.11 percent, Infineon Technologies retreated 1.66 percent, Deutsche Borse slumped 1.21 percent, Siemens dropped 0.93 percent, Heidelberg Materials sank 0.81 percent, Deutsche Post lost 0.69 percent and E.ON rose 0.16 percent. In London, Ashtead Group surged 4.15 percent, while Entain stumbled 3.28 percent, easyJet surrendered 2.72 percent, Haleon and Antofagasta both declined 1.53 percent, Shell jumped 1.43 percent, Vodafone Group and Spirax Group both sank 0.93 percent, Prudential shed 0.69 percent, Centrica lost 0.65 percent, Rolls-Royce added 0.59 percent, Tesco rose 0.53 percent and British American Tobacco eased 0.17 percent. In France, Kering plunged 4.09 percent, while Societe Generale tumbled 3.94 percent.

United States
Stocks moved notably lower during trading on Tuesday, giving back ground following the rebound seen in the previous session. The Nasdaq slid 180.12 points or 0.9 percent to 19,521.09, the S&P 500 decreased 50.39 points or 0.8 percent to 5,982.72 and the Dow fell 299.29 points or 0.7 percent to 42,215.80. The early pullback on Wall Street came as traders looked to cash in on yesterday's strong gains amid renewed concerns about the ongoing clash between Israel and Iran. While reports hinting at an end to hostilities contributed to a rally on Monday, news that President Donald Trump left a G7 summit early to focus on the conflict has led to worries about further escalation. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said French President Emmanuel Macron mistakenly said he left the summit in order to work on a cease fire between Israel and Iran. The Commerce Department said retail sales slid by 0.9 percent in May after edging down by a revised 0.1 percent in April. Economists had expected retail sales to decline by 0.6 percent compared to the 0.1 percent uptick originally reported for the previous month. Airline stocks showed a significant move back to the downside after rebounding on Monday, dragging the NYSE Arca Airline Index down by 3.8 percent. Considerable weakness was also visible among housing stocks, as reflected by the 2.5 percent slump by the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index. Pharmaceutical, telecom and healthcare stocks also saw notable weakness, while energy stocks regained ground along with the price of crude oil.

Asia
The stock markets in East Asia and Australia once again failed to show a consistent trend in the course of trading on Wednesday. The negative guidance from Wall Street largely fizzled out, as did the continuing uncertainty in the Middle East. US President Trump has called on Iran to capitulate and is apparently not ruling out the possibility of US intervention. Only in Shanghai (-0.2%) and especially in Hong Kong (-1.2%) did the indices fall. In Sydney, Australia, the S&P/ASX-200 has hardly moved for the third day in a row. In Seoul (+0.5%) and Tokyo, on the other hand, where the Nikkei-225 rose by 0.7 per cent, the indices rose for the third day in a row. In Tokyo, the market barometer is thus at a four-month high.

Bonds
In the U.S. bond market, treasuries regained ground following the pullback seen over the two previous sessions. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, tumbled by 6.5 basis points to 4.389 percent.

Analysis
UBS raises the Burckhardt Compression target to CHF 670 (655) – Neutral
Deutsche Bank raises the Yara target to NOK 385 (370) – Hold
Deutsche Bank lowers the Kühne+Nagel target to CHF 225 (251) – Buy