McDonald’s shares stalled in after-hours trading (-0.4%) even though the fast-food chain handily beat expectations for fourth-quarter earnings and revenue. The company reported adjusted earnings of $3.12 a share and revenue of $7.01 billion. Global comparable sales rose 5.7%, and comparable sales in the U.S. rose 6.8%. Wall Street was expecting McDonald’s to show growth as the fast-food chain’s value-led strategies offset the challenge of a tough economy. For the quarter ended in December, analysts polled by FactSet expected McDonald’s to report that net revenue increased by 7% to $6.84 billion. Earnings were expected to come in at $3.04 a share, up from $2.83 a year ago. For the full year, global comparable sales rose 3.1%, with a 2.1% gain in U.S. comparable sales. Revenue rose 4%.
McDonald’s is planning an aggressive global expansion, aiming to reach 50,000 restaurants globally by the end of 2027. It had 43,477 restaurants worldwide as of the end of 2024. In the U.S., the company has leaned on bundled value deals to appeal to budget-conscious consumers, while expanding its menu to keep interest in the brand fresh. That includes introducing new items, bringing back customer favourites, and expanding its beverage offerings to encourage add-on orders and boost traffic during the afternoon.

The Swiss stock market ended trading midweek with a slight gain. The SMI rose 0.2 percent to 13,547 points. Among individual stocks, Schindler shares slipped 10.3 percent following the release of its fourth-quarter 2025 results. Analysts at JP Morgan attributed this to the conservative outlook. The analysts consider the market reaction to be exaggerated, given that the shortfall in order intake was only slight and expectations had already been lowered following reports from competitors. They view the sales forecast as cautious, but also unsurprising after similar signals from Otis and Kone. Adecco slumped 5.6 percent after competitor Randstad's figures were described as mixed. In the wake of Siemens Energy's better-than-expected figures for the first quarter of the fiscal year, ABB shares added 1.4 percent.

Europe
European stock markets closed mixed on Wednesday. The Stoxx Europe 600 index gained 0.1% to 621.6 points. In Paris, the CAC 40 and SBF 120 each fell 0.2%. In Frankfurt, the DAX 40 dropped 0.5%, while the FTSE 100 gained 1.1% in London. DASSAULT SYSTEMES (-20.8%): On Wednesday, the software publisher presented cautious financial targets for 2026, as its results came in at the low end of its forecasts and below analysts' expectations for the fourth quarter of 2025 and for the full year. ERAMET (-5.2%): On Tuesday evening, Fitch Ratings downgraded the mining group's credit rating from “BB-” to ‘B’, with the outlook remaining “negative”. The financial rating agency expects Eramet's results to be “weak” for fiscal years 2025 and 2026, while its debt reduction trajectory remains uncertain. TOTALENERGIES (+2.7%): The energy producer reported a 17% year-on-year decline in net profit for 2025 on Wednesday, as falling oil prices weighed on its revenues. Against a backdrop of widespread declines in profits across the sector, TotalEnergies nevertheless announced an increase in its dividend for the past financial year and maintained its share buyback program for 2026.

United States
On Wednesday, the Dow industrials gave up early gains to close down around 0.1%, ending a three-day streak of gains. Shares of IBM, which fell 6.5,% dragged on the blue-chip index. The S&P 500 dropped less than 0.1% and the Nasdaq composite lost 0.2%. Indexes surrendered small gains that came after the January jobs report, briefly delayed by the government shutdown, showed the economy added 130,000 positions last month, more than double expectations. The unemployment rate unexpectedly ticked lower to 4.3%. Artificial-intelligence anxieties were still working their way through the stock market on Wednesday, with a slide in software and financial shares weighing on major U.S. indexes. Shares of Bank of America, JPMorgan and Citigroup each dropped more than 2%, while brokerage stocks like Charles Schwab and Robinhood continued their slide. Software names Salesforce and Intuit each ended the day down more than 4%. Financial-technology firm Altruist announced an AI tool that can create personalised tax strategies by interpreting financial documents without manual entry, the company said. Investors rushed out of brokerage and wealth-management stocks, fretting that the technology would eventually undermine those businesses. That echoed a similar retreat in software stocks that took shape last week after investors homed in on Anthropic’s announcement that it was adding new legal tools to its Cowork assistant. The tools are meant to help automate a number of legal drafting and research tasks. That sparked fears that the software industry would experience major disruption, and Wall Street dumped stocks like Adobe and PayPal, even selling shares of the private-credit firms that invest in the sector.

Asia
Asian stocks were mixed on Thursday. The Kospi shot up 2.3 percent to record highs thanks to strong gains among chip manufacturers. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 improved by 0.2 percent to 57,769 points after Wednesday's break for the national holiday, defending the strong gains it had made on Monday and Tuesday in response to Prime Minister Takaichi's overwhelming election victory. The Shanghai Composite remained virtually unchanged, while the HSI in Hong Kong fell more significantly by 1.1 percent. Among individual stocks, heavyweight Samsung Electronics surged 5.5 percent in Seoul, marking an all-time high for the stock.

Bonds
Long-dated U.S. government debt yields edged higher on Wednesday. Treasury yields rise as U.S. job creation surprises on the upside. The 10-year Treasury note yield climbed 3 basis points to 4.18%, while the 2-year Treasury note yield added 5 basis points to 3.52%. A ten-year US Treasury bond issue saw the lowest participation by indirect bidders, such as foreign central banks, since August. According to the CME FedWatch Tool, the probability of no interest rate cuts until June increased from 24.8% to 40.2% after the employment data was released.

Analysis
AMS Osram rating: Kepler Cheuvreux raises to Hold (Reduce) – target price CHF 8.80 (8)
Landis+Gyr target price: Berenberg lowers to CHF 70 (80) – Buy
Ems-Chemie target price: Julius Bär increases to CHF 680 (640) – Hold

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