Morning News

Amrize Appoints Sam Poletti as Chief Financial Officer

By Igor JOVICIC
Published on Tue, 25.Aug.2026

Topic of the day

Amrize has appointed Samuel J. Poletti as Chief Financial Officer, effective August 24. Poletti succeeds Baris Oran, who is stepping down for personal reasons. The company has also named Dillon Cumming as vice president of Investor Relations. He will join the company on September 8, following a career in equity research and financial analysis, notably at Morgan Stanley and Walleye Capital. Poletti has been a member of Amrize's Executive Committee as its Chief Strategy and M&A Officer since the company's listing on the NYSE in June 2025. Poletti led the successful spin-off of Amrize overseeing all the financial and non-financial aspects of establishing the independent company. With a more than 20-year career at Holcim in M&A, Finance and Strategy, Poletti oversaw the transformational acquisitions in Building Envelope, which doubled the size of the North American business, while leading value accretive transactions in Building Materials, from cement to aggregates. As CFO, Poletti will be based at Amrize's operational headquarters in Chicago.

Swiss stocks

The Swiss stock market closed slightly higher on Monday, in line with the rest of the European markets. The SMI fell 0.1 percent to 14,447 points. The Swiss technology sector is experiencing a moderate recovery with rising sales and exports, yet higher U.S. tariffs threaten to stifle the upswing, according to the industry association Swissmem. Logitech shares climbed 1.3 percent. Meanwhile, the two pharmaceutical heavyweights, Roche (-1.4%) and Novartis (-0.5%), were among the losers. Roche thus did not benefit from positive news coming out of the U.S. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved a blood test developed by Roche and Eli Lilly to detect symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. Kühne+Nagel shed 0.1 percent. The logistics group had announced the death of its principal shareholder, Klaus-Michael Kühne. A positive report from Deutsche Bank failed to lift Docmorris’s stock, declining by 0.6 percent. Sonova (-0.6%) unveiled a new generation of AI-powered products, however this did little to help its stock price following its recent rally. After reporting its half-year results, Metall Zug added 0.5 percent.

International markets

Europe
European stock markets kicked off the week on a mixed note. According to FactSet data, the Stoxx Europe 600 index ended Monday flat at 654.21 points. In Paris, the CAC 40 and the SBF 120 each fell 0.4%. In Frankfurt, the DAX 40 edged down 0.1%, while the FTSE 100 gained 0.4% in London. Scepticism regarding AI companies’ heavy infrastructure investments, combined with high bond yields, led to a reluctance to buy technology stocks. Infineon sank 3.2 percent, Siemens Energy 3 percent, Aixtron 2.5 percent, ASML 1.1 percent, STMicroelectronics 2 percent, and Suss 6 percent. Stocks such as Prosus declined by 1.4 percent after Alibaba also brought the issue of capital increases for AI investments back into focus. Rheinmetall lost 2.6 percent, Hensoldt 2.6 percent, Renk 2.9 percent, and Leonardo 2.6 percent. Energy stocks were also among the losers as the price of oil dropped by more than 2 percent. Repsol gave up 3.2 percent, TotalEnergies 1.9 percent, and BP 2.9 percent.

United States
Sliding shares of chip makers and signs of intensifying geopolitical tension weighed on major stock indexes Monday, delivering a muted start to a jam-packed week for markets. The S&P 500 fell 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite declined 0.8%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 0.3% higher, rising 140 points. Stocks tied to the artificial-intelligence trade dropped, extending their bumpy stretch ahead of Wednesday’s all-important earnings update from Nvidia. Chip, memory and other infrastructure names were among the biggest losers in the S&P 500 index. Shares of Sandisk SNDK slid 6.5%. Ciena CIEN, another AI infrastructure play, plummeted 6%. Nvidia NVDA retreated 2.9%. It was the seventh-straight day of declines, the stock’s longest losing streak in four years. The $5 trillion chip maker is expected to report record sales of $92 billion for the quarter.

Asia
Asian stocks were mixed on Tuesday. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 Index is up 0.3 percent, while the broader Topix added 0.5 percent. The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong fell 0.3 percent, while the Shanghai Composite Index remained largely unchanged. In Seoul, South Korea, the Kospi shed 0.2 percent, once again weighed down by chip heavyweights SK Hynix (-3.6%) and Samsung Electronics (-1.8%).

Bonds
Long-dated U.S. government debt yields slipped on Monday. The 10-year Treasury note yield settled at 4.703%, according to Tradeweb, down from 4.737% Friday. The 30-year bond yield dipped to 5.230% from 5.276%. Since the Treasury announced plans to buy back more long-dated securities last week, demand for bonds increased slightly, keeping yields below recent highs. Sticky inflation and rising government debt keep bond investors on their toes, preventing a steeper fall.

Analysis
Citi raises Geberit to CHF 575 (520) - Neutral
Sika price target: UBS upgrades to CHF 230 (220) - Buy
SPS rating: Barclays lowers to Equal Weight (Overweight) - Price target CHF 125 (160)


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