President Trump announced many new tariffs Thursday, including a large one on drugs from pharmaceutical companies that aren’t building plants in the U.S. “Starting October 1st, 2025, we will be imposing a 100% Tariff on any branded or patented Pharmaceutical Product, unless a Company IS BUILDING their Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plant in America,” Trump posted on his social-media site, Truth Social, without providing details. Many of the largest pharmaceutical companies have announced new construction in the U.S. in recent months including Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, Roche Holding and GSK. So far this year, more than a dozen drugmakers have pledged to spend more than $350 billion collectively by the end of this decade on manufacturing, research and development, and other functions in the U.S., The Wall Street Journal has reported. Other tariffs Trump announced Thursday include levies on large trucks and home goods. All of them will begin Oct. 1, he said.

The Swiss market ended notably lower for a third straight session, as stocks reeled under selling pressure right through the day's trading session Thursday. Investors digested the Swiss central bank's decision to leave its policy rate unchanged. The benchmark SMI ended down by 103.03 points or 0.86% at 11,875.80, the session's low. Sonova ended more than 4% down. Amrize and Galderma Group closed lower by 3.54% and 3.36%, respectively. UBS Group, Straumann Holding, Kuehne + Nagel, Swatch Group and VAT Group lost 2 to 2.6%. Roche Holding, Partners Group, Holcim, Sandoz Group, Alcon, Julius Baer, Givaudan, Lindt & Spruengli and Lonza Group also ended notably lower. Swiss Re climbed by about 1.3%. Swisscom advanced nearly 1%, and Novartis closed marginally up. The Swiss National Bank today left its policy rate unchanged after easing for six straight meetings as higher US trade tariffs dampened the economic outlook amid weak inflation. The SNB retained its policy rate unchanged at zero percent, as widely expected. The central bank had reduced the key rate by 175 basis points since March 2024. The bank exited its negative rate in 2022 after holding it for over seven years.

Europe
European stocks closed broadly lower on Thursday, weighed down by concerns about Trump administration's trade policy, and uncertainty about the outlook for Federal Reserve's interest rates. Investors digested regional data, and the latest batch of economic data from the U.S. The pan European Stoxx 600 ended down by about 0.7%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 closed down by 0.39%, Germany's DAX settled lower by 0.56% and France's CAC 40 drifted down 0.41%. Switzerland's SMI closed 0.86% down. Among other markets in Europe, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain and Sweden closed weak. Austria, Ireland and Turkiye ended higher. In the UK market, Convatec Group closed down by 5.6% after the US launched investigations into imports of robotics, industrial machinery, and medical devices. Phoenix Group Holdings ended lower by 5.4%. AstraZeneca, Barclays, DCC, Ashtead Group, Howden Joinery, Experian and Natwest Group lost 2 to 2.25%. Standard Chartered, Spirax Group, Berkeley Group Holdings, Marks & Spencer, Antofagasta, Schroders, ICG, M&G and Fresnillo also declined sharply. Rio Tinto rallied more than 3.5%. 3i Group, Entain, Beazley, Smiths Group, Imperial Brands, Halma, British American Tobacco and Shell also ended notably higher. JD Sports Fashion found some support after launching a £100 million share buyback program. Shares of healty and safety device maker Halma Plc are up 1% after the company raised its full-year revenue growth forecast. In the German market, Siemens Healthineers, Heidelberg Materials, Adidas, Brenntag, Puma, Fresenius Medical Care, Daimler Truck Holding, Qiagen, Deutsche Bank, Merck, Zalando, Gea Group, Siemens Energy, Bayer and Fresenius all ended with sharp losses.

United States
Following the pullback seen over the two previous sessions, stocks saw further downside during trading on Thursday. The major averages continued to give back ground after ending Monday's trading at new record closing highs. The major averages ended the day well off their lows of the session but still firmly negative. The Nasdaq slid 113.16 points or 0.5 percent to 22,384.70, the S&P 500 declined 33.25 points or 0.5 percent to 6,604.72 and the Dow fell 173.96 points or 0.4 percent to 45,947.32. The continued weakness on Wall Street partly reflected ongoing concerns about the near-term outlook for the artificial intelligence trade. AI player Oracle (ORCL) plunged by 5.6 percent on the day, although shares of Nvidia (NVDA) saw modest strength after moving notably lower over the two previous sessions. Renewed uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates also weighed on the markets following the release of some upbeat U.S. economic data. A report released by the Labor Department unexpectedly showed an extended pullback by first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended September 20th. The Labor Department said initial jobless claims fell to 218,000, a decrease of 14,000 from the previous week's revised level of 232,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to inch up to 235,000. Jobless claims pulled back further off the nearly four-year high set in the first week of September, falling to their lowest level since hitting 217,000 in the week ended July 19th. Airline stocks moved sharply lower over the course of the session, with the NYSE Arca Airline Index tumbling by 2.9 percent to its lowest closing level in over a month. Significant weakness was also visible among pharmaceutical stocks, as reflected by the 2.0 percent slump by the NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical Index. The index also ended the session at a one-month closing low.

Asia
Asian stock markets are showing some heavy losses on the last trading day of the week. Concerns about a further escalation of the tariff dispute with the US are weighing on sentiment. This is compounded by renewed negative signals from Wall Street.

Bonds
In the U.S. bond market, treasuries are seeing continued weakness following the upbeat U.S. economic data. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, rose 2.5 basis points to 4.172 percent.

Analysis
Bank of America raises SKF to Buy (Neutral) – Target 280 (240) SEK
Bank of America lowers Totalenergies target to 62 (66) EUR – Buy
UBS lowers Knorr Bremse target to 99 (104) EUR – Buy

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