Qualcomm said it is buying Alphawave IP Group in a $2.4 billion transaction meant to help it move faster into the artificial-intelligence data-center market. In trading Monday, Qualcomm shares were up 3.6%, while Alphawave stock surged by 18.9% in London. Alphawave, based in the U.K., is a leader in high-speed connectivity and custom chip products that enable fast data transfer with lower power consumption. “The combined teams share the goal of building advanced technology solutions and enabling next-level connected computing performance across a wide array of high growth areas, including data center infrastructure,” Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said in the release. The chipmaker is making a big push to get its central processing unit chips used in the data-center market. Last month, Nvidia announced Qualcomm will be among its initial NVLink Fusion AI chip partners, enabling the company’s CPU to be incorporated into Nvidia’s market-leading rack-scale AI server architecture. Qualcomm expects the acquisition to close during the first quarter of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals.

The Swiss stock market ended trading on Friday in slightly positive territory. The focus was on UBS shares, having risen by 3.8 per cent. The Swiss government announced that the bank must hold up to USD 26 billion in additional capital due to stricter capital requirements for systemically relevant banks. However, it was reported in trading that AT1 bonds already forming part of the core capital can be partially offset, reducing the new capital requirement by USD 8 billion. As a result, the share price responded positively. The SMI benefited from the strong rise in UBS shares and gained 0.4 per cent to 12,366 points before the long weekend. The stock exchange remained closed on Pentecost Monday. Among the 20 SMI stocks, there were 15 price gainers and 4 price losers, while the Partners Group share closed unchanged. A total of 20.14 (previously: 16.52) million shares were traded. Corporate news, on the other hand, was scarce.

Europe
The European stock markets dipped on Monday. The Stoxx Europe 600 index shed 0.1% to 553.2 points. In Paris, the CAC 40 and the SBF 120 each gave up 0.2%. The DAX 40 lost 0.5% in Frankfurt and the FTSE 100 weakened by 0.1% in London. RENAULT (+1.1%): the car manufacturer is currently in talks with the French government about setting up a production line for military drones in Ukraine, a Renault representative told the Agefi-Dow Jones agency on Monday. Anglo American could realise only half the valuation of 4.9 billion US dollars when selling its diamond business, according to a newspaper report. The Financial Times reported a weak diamond market as the reason behind such a low valuation. Anglo American intends to start the formal sales process for its diamond subsidiary De Beers within the next few weeks. The share price slipped by 1 per cent. WPP dropped 2.8 per cent to 543.40 pence in London. The resignation of CEO Mark Read created a vacuum in the management team.

United States
A rally in chip stocks helped lift major indexes Monday following signs that the Trump administration could ease restrictions on China’s access to semiconductors. The S&P 500 rose 0.1%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.3%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1 point, essentially unchanged. Monday’s gains came as U.S. and Chinese delegations met in London for talks aimed at patching up a fraying truce in a continuing trade war between the world’s two biggest economies. The talks were expected to focus on export controls, which both sides have deployed as a trade weapon. The products covered by recent U.S. restrictions include jet engines, software required by Chinese companies to produce chips, and ethane, The Wall Street Journal reported. The iShares Semiconductor ETF climbed 2.4% Monday. Among individual chip makers, Qualcomm rose 4.1% and Advanced Micro Devices gained 4.8%. Synopsys, which makes software for designing chips, advanced 2%. Overall, stocks have been slowly grinding higher in recent weeks—a shift from the outsize volatility that followed President Trump’s announcement of sweeping tariffs on April 2. Investors’ hopes on trade have been buoyed by steps that Trump has taken to reduce some tariffs and a court ruling that suggested that the administration might need to use a different legal framework to advance its policies. At the same time, investors widely expect tariffs to create at least a modest drag on economic growth in the coming months. The S&P 500 is now up 2.1% for the year and is 2.3% off its record reached in February. Disappointed expectations that the shares of Robinhood Markets and AppLovin would be included in the S&P 500 index pushed their prices down by 4.8 and 4.2 per cent respectively. Warner Bros. Discovery's split into two independent, listed companies was not well received. The share price fell by 3 per cent. Unitedhealth traded 0.4 per cent lower. According to a report, the health insurer wants to sell its business in Latin America, with bids totalling up to USD 1 billion. Oilfield equipment supplier Baker Hughes (+1.1%) is divesting its precision sensors and instruments business. Crane (+4.7%), a manufacturer of aerospace components, is acquiring the business for USD 1.15 billion. Apple took centre stage at its annual developer conference (WWDC). The iPhone manufacturer presented innovations in the operating system and AI. Initial commentators were rather disappointed by the progress made in AI, with the share price falling by 1.2 per cent.

Asia
Asian indexes mostly rose ahead of further China-U.S. talks on Tuesday. The Nikkei-25 in Tokyo improved by 1.0 per cent to 28,479 points. In Seoul, the Kospi climbed a further 0.7 per cent. In Shanghai and Hong Kong, however, gains were lower at up to 0.3 per cent. As on previous days, chip stocks are among the favourites. In Tokyo, Advantest is still unstoppable, with the share price rising by a further 4 per cent. Renesas also increased in price by the same amount. Tokyo Electron increased in price by a good 1 per cent. In Seoul, SK Hynix advanced by 1.1 per cent, while Samsung Electronics dropped by 1 per cent.

Bonds
U.S. government debt yields lost ground on Monday. The 10-year Treasury note yield slipped below 4.5%, with government auctions of three-year notes, 10-year notes and 30-year bonds slated for later this week. Yields jumped Friday following a better-than-expected jobs report.

Analysis
UBS downgrades Julius Baer to Neutral (Buy) - Target CHF 55 (64.50)
Vontobel cuts Sandoz to Hold (Buy) - Target CHF 45
Deutsche Bank raises target Zurich Insurance to CHF 570 (560) - Hold