Airbus is in talks to buy Atos’s cybersecurity unit, with an indicative offer that values the business at up to 1.8 billion euros ($1.97 billion) including debt. Facing fresh financial constraints, French IT group Atos is revisiting its asset-sale plans nearly a year after the European plane maker’s failed bid to take a minority stake in the Atos division that houses the cybersecurity unit. Atos said Wednesday that it is in preliminary discussions with Airbus over a potential sale of its big-data and security business, or BDS, and that it will now open a due diligence phase. Airbus’s indicative offer is for an enterprise value of between EUR1.5 billion and EUR1.8 billion, Atos said. Airbus confirmed it submitted a nonbinding proposal in relation to a potential acquisition of Atos’s BDS. Discussions remain subject to due diligence and there can be no certainty that they will result in a transaction, the company said.

The Swiss stock market returned from its lengthy New Year's break to the upside, opening higher on Wednesday and remaining in the green throughout the session. Separated by four days, the SMI has now finished higher in two straight trading sessions, collecting more than 110 points or 1 percent along the way. The upside was limited, however, as investors looked ahead to the release of Federal Reserve's December meeting minutes later in the day to gauge the rate hike trajectory, which some analysts now suggest may have been too optimistic. For the day, the index added 32.47 points or 0.29 percent to finish at 11,170.26 after trading between 11,136.29 and 11,294.93. Among the actives, Sika plunged 5.63 percent, while Novartis spiked 4.43 percent, UBS Group stumbled 4.41 percent, Swatch Group sank 3.76 percent, ABB dropped 3.16 percent, Roche Holding rallied 3.01 percent, Swisscom jumped 1.94 percent, Nestle advanced 1.84 percent, Zurich Insurance collected 0.82 percent, Swiss Life lost 0.79 percent and Swiss Re rose 0.59 percent.

Europe
The major European markets opened lower on Wednesday and continued to sink as the day progressed, ending near session lows. The markets were subdued as investors looked ahead to the release of Federal Reserve's December meeting minutes later in the day to gauge the rate hike trajectory, which some analysts now suggest may have been too optimistic. Germany's DAX stumbled 230.97 points or 1.38 percent to finish at 16,538.39, while the FTSE in London sank 39.19 points or 0.51 percent to close at 7,682.33 and the CAC 40 in France plunged 119.00 points or 1.58 percent to end at 7,411.86. In Germany, Siemens Energy plummeted 6.39 percent, while Infineon Technologies plunged 3.82 percent, Zalando tanked 3.58 percent, BASF tumbled 2.67 percent, Vonovia retreated 2.14 percent, Deutsche Bank slumped 1.86 percent, Volkswagen declined 1.79 percent, Deutsche Telekom rallied 1.46 percent, Deutsche Borse dropped 1.33 percent and Bayer rose 0.23 percent. In London, Rentokil stumbled 4.95 percent, while Antofagasta skidded 3.57 percent, Centrica surged 3.15 percent, Scottish Mortgage shed 2.99 percent, Prudential sank 2.94 percent, BAE Systems jumped 1.61 percent, Tesco rallied 1.60 percent, Haleon improved 1.22 percent, Rolls-Royce lost 1.11 percent, Rightmove fell 0.72 percent, Shell added 0.68 percent, SSE slid 0.44 percent, Vodafone dipped 0.36 percent and British American Tobacco perked 0.06 percent. In France, Worldline plunged 6.66 percent, while Atos tumbled 5.75 percent, Societe Generale retreated 2,74 percent, BNP Paribas surrendered 2.67 percent, Danone climbed 1.66 percent, Orange advanced 1.22 percent, Sanofi gained 1.20 percent, Credit Agricole stumbled 0.86 percent, Engie shed 0.69 percent, Veolia Environment dipped 0.46 percent and Vivendi was down 0.23 percent.

United States
After kicking off the new year on a downbeat note, stocks saw further downside over the course of the trading session on Wednesday. The major averages all fell on the day, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq closing lower for the fourth consecutive session. The major averages dropped to new lows for the session going into the close of trading. The Nasdaq slumped 173.73 points or 1.2 percent to 14,592.21, the Dow slid 284.85 points or 0.8 percent to 37,430.19 and the S&P 500 fell 38.02 points or 0.8 percent to 4,704.81. The continued weakness on Wall Street partly reflected concerns investors have become too optimistic about the likelihood of near-term interest rate cuts. Stocks saw some further downside as the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting reiterated officials widely expect to begin lowering rates in 2024, but they also highlighted an 'unusually elevated degree of uncertainty' about the outlook. Projections provided by Fed officials at the December 12-13 meeting suggested three quarter point rate cuts by the central bank are likely by the end of 2024. The forecasts were backed up by the minutes, which said baseline projections implied that a lower target range for the federal funds rate would be appropriate by the end of 2024. Airline stocks extended the sharp pullback seen over the two previous sessions, resulting in a 4.1 percent nosedive by the NYSE Arca Airline Index. Substantial weakness was also visible among gold stocks, as reflected by the 2.6 percent slump by the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index. The sell-off by gold stocks came amid a steep drop by the price of the precious metal, with gold for February delivery tumbling $30.60 or 1.5 percent to $2,042.80 an ounce.

Asia
The trend on the stock exchanges in Asia and Australia was more moderate on Thursday. The indices lost between 0.4 per cent in Sydney and 1.0 per cent in Singapore. In Tokyo, it is the first trading day of 2024 after two public holidays at the beginning of the year, with the Nikkei index losing 0.7 per cent to 33,244 points.

Bonds
In the U.S. bond, treasuries showed a significant rebound over the course of the session after seeing early weakness. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, fell by 3.9 basis points to 3.907 percent after reaching a high of 4.008 percent.

Analysis
UBS lowers Pernod Ricard target to EUR 163 (167) – Neutral
UBS raises Aroundtown target to 2.60 (1.60) – Neutral
Barclays lowers Siemens Energy target to EUR 15 (19) – Overweight

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