Nestle lowered its sales expectations for the second time this year as the food giant offers greater discounts to lure back shoppers deterred by rising prices in recent years. he Switzerland-based maker of coffee, confectionary, breakfast cereals and nutritional supplements now expects organic sales growth of 2% for 2024 as a whole, down from previous targets of at least 3% and before that, 4%. That would imply no acceleration from the first nine months of the year, when sales were 2.4% lower on year at 67.15 billion Swiss francs ($77.59 billion), Nestle said Thursday. At 2% growth, adjusted for currency effects, that was broadly in line with the expectations of analysts, according to a consensus of estimates provided by the company. “Consumer demand has weakened in recent months, and we expect the demand environment to remain soft," newly appointed Chief Executive Laurent Freixe said.

After a weak start and a subsequent long spell in negative territory, the Switzerland market briefly edged up into positive territory in the final hour of the session on Wednesday but slipped and ended the day marginally down. The benchmark SMI ended with a loss of 25.78 points or 0.21% at 12,193.07, after moving in a tight range between 12,161.05 and 12,223.11. VAT Group dropped 4.28%, and Swatch Group closed down 2.75%. Alcon and Givaudan ended lower by 1.67% and 1.52%, respectively. Logitech International ended down 1.16%. Lindt & Spruengli, Richemont, ABB, Schindler Ps and Roche Holding closed lower by 0.6 to 1%. Holcim ended moderately lower. The Swiss building materials company is weighing a potential dual listing of its North American subsidiary in the US and Switzerland, according to Bloomberg News. Tecan Group plunged 14.5% following a profit warning. The laboratory instruments company announced an anticipated 12% to 14% drop in full-year 2024 sales in local currencies, compared with its previous forecast of a flat to mid-single-digit percentage decline. Adecco gained nearly 2%. Julius Baer and SGS climbed 1.78% and 1.46%, respectively. Straumann Holding gained 1.13% and UBS Group ended up 1.05%. Swiss Life Holding gained nearly 1%. Swisscom ended with a gain of 0.62%, while Kuehne & Nagel gained 0.45%.

Europe
European markets closed broadly lower on Wednesday after a cautious session, even as the U.K. market settled at multi-week high thanks to data showing a sharp drop in inflation in September. Investors looked ahead to the European Central Bank's policy announcement on Thursday for directional cues. UK inflation fell below the 2% target and also hit the lowest in more than three years in September, piling pressure on the Bank of England to ease policy at the November meeting. Consumer price inflation weakened more-than-expected to 1.7% in September from 2.2% in August, the Office for National Statistics said. The pan European Stoxx 600 ended down 0.19%. Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 closed lower by 0.27% and 0.4%, respectively. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 climbed 0.97% to a six-week high. Switzerland's SMI ended lower by 0.21%. Among other markets in Europe, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands and Russia ended weak. Austria, Greece, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Turkiye closed higher, while Iceland ended flat. In the UK market, Whitbread climbed more than 6%. Barratt Developments, Entain, Severn Trent, Endeavour Mining, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Persimmon, Taylor Wimpey, Melrose Industries, United Utilities and Ashtead Group gained 3 to 5%. Land Securities, Legal & General, JD Sports Fashion, LondonMetric Property, British Land, IAG, Vodafone Group, Howden Joinery and DCC also moved up sharply.

United States
Stocks showed a lack of direction early in the session on Wednesday but moved mostly higher over the course of the trading day. With the upward move, the Dow more than offset the loss posted during Tuesday's session, reaching a new record closing high. The major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line in early trading but climbed more firmly into positive territory as the day progressed. The Dow jumped 337.28 points or 0.8 percent to 43,077.70, the Nasdaq rose 51.49 points or 0.3 percent to 18,367.08 and the S&P 500 climbed 27.21 points or 0.5 percent to 5,842.47. The advance by the Dow was partly due to a strong gain by Cisco Systems (CSCO), with the networking giant surging by 4.3 percent after Citi upgraded its rating on the company's stock to Buy from Neutral. The blue chip index also benefited from a rebound by health insurance giant UnitedHealth (UNH), which jumped by 2.7 percent after plunging by 8.1 percent on Tuesday. The choppy trading seen early in the day came amid some uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets on the heels of Tuesday's pullback. Airline stocks saw substantial strength on the day, driving the NYSE Arca Airline Index up by 4.8 percent to its best closing level in almost five months. United Airlines (UAL) helped lead the sector higher, soaring by 12.4 percent after reporting better than expected third quarter results and announcing a $1.5 billion share buyback. Abbott Laboratories beat Wall Street estimates for quarterly earnings and sales. The maker of healthcare products posted adjusted earnings of $1.21 per share in the third quarter, topping Wall Street’s call for $1.20, according to FactSet. Net sales of $10.64 billion beat the consensus estimate for $10.55 billion.

Asia
The stock markets in East Asia and Australia showed a mixed trend on Thursday. While the stock market in Japan fell slightly, the Hong Kong stock market rose. The Australian stock exchange is also trading firmer. Positive signals came from Wall Street. Here, the stock markets recovered somewhat from the previous day's significant losses.

Bonds
In the U.S. bond market, treasuries extended the upward move seen over the two previous sessions. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, dipped 2.2 basis points to 4.016 percent.

Analysis
UBS lowers Bossard target to CHF 175 (179) – Sell
Bank of America lowers ASML target to EUR 870 (1,064) – Buy
Citi lowers ING target to EUR 19 (19.80) – Buy

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