Micron Technology stock jumped in late trading on Wednesday after the company reported strong earnings and provided guidance above Wall Street expectations. For the quarter ending Aug. 29, the memory chip maker reported revenue of $7.75 billion - up 93% versus the prior year - and adjusted earnings of $1.18 per share. Wall Street was expecting revenue of $7.65 billion with adjusted EPS of $1.11. Micron’s outlook was even better. It guided the current quarter to a range with $8.7 billion in sales at the midpoint, versus the $8.3 billion analysts’ estimate. “Robust AI demand drove a strong ramp of our data center DRAM products and our industry-leading high bandwidth memory,” Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said in the release. The company’s stock was up 15% to $109.91 in after-hours trading following the report. Micron is a leader in the markets for DRAM, or dynamic random-access memory, which is used in desktop computers and servers, and for flash memory, which is found in smartphones and solid-state hard drives. It has also become a key supplier of HBM, or high-bandwidth memory, for artificial intelligence servers.

The Swiss stock market posted its third consecutive day of gains in the middle of the week. Once again, Richemont (+2.2 per cent) and Swatch (+1.7 per cent) were sought-after stocks from the luxury goods segment. The SMI improved by 0.8 per cent to 12,148 points. Among the 20 SMI stocks, there were 16 gainers and 4 losers. A total of 14.63 (previously: 19.11) million shares were traded. Participants were also looking ahead to the Swiss National Bank's (SNB) interest rate decision on Thursday. The index heavyweights Nestlé, Novartis and Roche rose by up to 0.9 per cent. Insurance stocks were also in the spotlight. JP Morgan issued an ‘overweight’ rating for the shares of Helvetia (+5.8%). In contrast, the analysts' initial rating for Baloise (+0.2%) was “Underweight”. Swiss Life (+0.3%) was assigned a ‘Neutral’ rating.

Europe
European stocks were weaker Wednesday as investors digested some disappointing U.S. economic data as well as the latest Chinese stimulus measures. The Stoxx Europe 600 index shed 0.1% to 519.1 points. In Paris, the CAC 40 and SBF 120 lost 0.5% each. The DAX 40 in Frankfurt was down 0.4%, while the FTSE 100 in London slipped 0.2%. Ubisoft slumped 4.5% after the video game publisher cancelled a presentation scheduled for Thursday at the Tokyo video game fair, according to a message posted on Ubisoft Japan's X (ex-Twitter) account. Ubisoft revised its financial targets for 2024-2025 downwards after the close of trading on the Paris stock exchange, and pushed back the release date of its next flagship game, Assassin's Creed Shadows, to 14 February 2025. Sanofi (-1.2%) has received two bids for its consumer healthcare division Opella, although they are lower than expected, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday evening. US fund CD&R and France's PAI Partners, which had until Monday evening to formalise an offer, valued Opella at $16.7 billion (€15 billion) or more, $3 billion below the valuation previously estimated, Bloomberg reported. US authorities are investigating several companies, including German software maker SAP (-2.4% in Frankfurt) and IT products distributor Carahsoft Technology, over an alleged cartel over prices for sales to the US military and other services, Bloomberg reported, citing court documents filed in Baltimore.

United States
U.S stocks turned weaker Wednesday, erasing some recent gains in the absence of any major new catalyst to keep driving share prices higher. Blue-chip stocks endured the brunt of the selling pressure, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 0.7%, or roughly 293 points, to snap a four-day winning streak. The S&P 500 slipped 0.2%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite ticked up less than 0.1%. Both the Dow and the S&P 500 had closed at record highs on Tuesday, riding some lingering momentum from the Federal Reserve’s half-a-percentage point cut to short-term interest rates last week. Stocks also got a boost Tuesday after China’s central bank announced a raft of stimulus measures aimed at supporting the country’s weakening economy. No such help arrived Wednesday, however. The day was light on economic data and corporate earnings reports, and a slightly better-than-expected reading on new home sales did little to move markets. Weighing on the Dow, Amgen shares fell 5.5% after analysts were underwhelmed by the results of a late-stage study of a drug that would treat a type of eczema. Visa dropped another 1% after sliding 5.5% Tuesday, when the Justice Department said it was suing the company for antitrust violations. Economic data could play a bigger role in driving markets over the remainder of the week. Data on weekly unemployment claims and durable goods orders will be released Thursday. On Friday, the Commerce Department will release closely-watched data on personal income and spending trends, as well as the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge.

Asia
In Asia, major indexes broadly closed with gains on Thursday. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index rose by 2.3 per cent to 38,749 points. The share price of chip supplier Advantest improves by 5.2 per cent, while Tokyo Electron rises by 7.7 per cent. The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong gained 2.3 per cent. Alibaba and Meituan Internet shares advance by 5.4 and 5.9 per cent respectively. In Seoul, the Kospi rises by 2.0 per cent. SK Hynix made a leap of 8.7 per cent. The semiconductor company has started series production of the world's first twelve-layer HBM3E memory with 36 GB. The share price of index heavyweight Samsung Electronis, which is also heavily involved in the semiconductor business, climbed 2.9 per cent. Gains in Shanghai were slightly more moderate at 0.6 per cent.

Bonds
U.S. government debt yields rose Wednesday as investors added to bets that the U.S. economy looks poised for a soft economic landing despite ahead of Friday’s PCE inflation report. The 10-year Treasury note yield edged up 5 basis points to 3.787%. The 2-year Treasury note yield also increased, by 3 basis points to 3.557%.

Analysis
Rating Swiss Life: JP Morgan resumes with Neutral - target CHF 720
Rating Helvetia: JP Morgan starts with Overweight - target CHF 170
Rating Baloise: JP Morgan relaunches with Underweight - target CHF 155

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