ABB increased sales in the fourth quarter but earned less on the bottom line. As the technology group announced this morning, it achieved the targets it had set itself with the results for the final quarter and the year as a whole and intends to increase the dividend slightly. The company expects another good performance in 2024, despite the uncertainties caused by the geopolitical situation. In the fourth quarter, net profit fell to 921 million dollars from 1.13 billion dollars in the same period of the previous year. Turnover rose to 8.245 billion dollars from 7.82 billion. Analysts had expected slightly less, with net profit at 872 million dollars and turnover at 8.10 billion dollars, according to the consensus calculated by the company. Operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITA) rose to 1.33 billion dollars from 1.15 billion dollars, slightly below analysts' estimates of 1.35 billion dollars. ABB is proposing an ordinary dividend of 0.87 Swiss francs per share, up from 0.84 francs last year. "We continue to plan share buybacks to return excess cash to shareholders, including in 2024," the group said.

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The Swiss stock market ended notably lower on Wednesday after staying well below the unchanged line right through the day's trading session. The benchmark SMI ended down 109.75 points or 0.96% at 11,333.38. Novartis ended down 3.45% and Holcim drifted down nearly 2.5%. Lonza Group and ABB ended lower by 1.8% and 1.66%, respectively. Geberit weakened by 1.3%, and Richemont lost 1.11%. Sonova, Nestle, Givaudan and Logitech International also closed weak. Roche Holding, Swiss Life Holding, Zurich Insurance Group and Sika edged down marginally. In the Mid Price Index, Meyer Burger Tech tanked 17.2%. ams OSRAM AG ended nearly 5% down. Georg Fischer and SIG Combibloc both ended nearly 2.5% down. Straumann Holding, Lindt & Spruengli, Barry Callebaut, Julius Baer, Flughafen Zurich and VAT Group lost 0.8 to 1.6%. Sandoz climbed 2.65%. Adecco gained 1%, while BKW and Helvetia both advanced nearly 0.75%. Data from the Federal Statistical Office showed Switzerland's retail sales adjusted for sales days and holidays fell a working-day adjusted 0.8% year-on-year in December, reversing a revised 1.5% drop in November. On a monthly basis, retail sales dropped a seasonally adjusted 0.6% in December versus a 0.2% rebound a month ago. In nominal terms, retail sales rose 0.1% annually while declining 0.6% monthly in December. During the whole year 2023, total retail sales in real terms were 2% lower compared to 2022.

Europe
The major European markets closed weak on Wednesday with investors digesting earnings updates, the latest batch of economic data from the region, and looking ahead to the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England's monetary policy announcements. The pan European Stoxx 600 ended down 0.47%. Germany's DAX drifted down 0.4%, and France's CAC 40 settled lower by 0.27%, while Switzerland's SMI closed 0.96% down. Other markets in Europe ended on a mixed note. Finland, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden ended weak. Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain and Turkiye closed higher, while Austria settled flat. In the UK market, WPP, Marks & Spencer, M&G, B&M European Value Retail, Vodafone, Next, Smurfit Kappa Group, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Tesco, Airtel Africa, Prudential and Ashtead ended lower by 1.6 to 3%. Croda International surged nearly 5%. GlaxoSmithKline, Antofagasta, Severn Trent, St. James's Place, Barratt Developments, Entain, Smith & Nephew and Beazley gained 1 to 2%. In the German market, Bayer ended lower by nearly 4%. Zalando closed more than 2% down. BMW climbed 1.8%, while E.ON and Mercedes-Benz both gained a little over 1%. In Paris, Airbus Group, Teleperformance, Thales, LVMH and Edenred lost 1 to 1.6%, while Stellantis, Renault, ArcelorMittal, Sanofi and Alstom gained 0.5 to 1.4%.

United States
Stocks moved sharply lower over the course of the trading day on Wednesday, with the major averages all moving to the downside following the mixed performance seen in the previous session. The tech-heavy Nasdaq posted a particularly steep loss, extending the notable pullback seen on Tuesday. The major averages finished the session near their worst levels of the day. The Nasdaq plunged 345.89 points or 2.2 percent to 15,164.01, the S&P 500 tumbled 79.32 points or 1.6 percent to 4,845.65 and the Dow slid 317.01 points or 0.8 percent to 38,150.30. Tech stocks led the way lower early in the session, but selling pressure became broader based following the Federal Reserve's highly anticipated monetary policy announcement. The Fed announced its widely expected decision to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 5.25 to 5.50 percent in support of its dual goals of maximum employment and inflation at the rate of 2 percent over the longer run. Fed Chair Jerome Powell reiterated those sentiments in his post-meeting press conference and said he doesn't think it's likely the central bank will reach that level of confidence by the time of the March meeting. Alphabet came under pressure after reporting fourth quarter results that beat estimates on the top and bottom lines but weaker than expected ad revenue. Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) also slumped by 2.5 percent after reporting fourth quarter earnings in line with estimates but providing disappointing first quarter guidance. Shares of Microsoft (MSFT) also moved to the downside after the software giant reported better than expected fiscal second quarter results but forecast third quarter revenues below estimates.

Asia
Stock markets in East Asia were very mixed on Thursday after significant losses on Wall Street. Sydney, where the market usually follows the US lead the most, has already ended the trading day down 1.2 per cent after reaching a record high the previous day. In Tokyo, the Nikkei-225 fell by 0.9 per cent to 35,937 points.

Bonds
In the U.S. bond market, treasuries moved sharply higher, extending a recent upward trend. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, tumbled 9.2 basis points to 3.967 percent.

Analysis
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