Zurich (awp) – The Swiss stock market ended on a slightly negative note on Friday. The indices reacted relatively little to the US employment data. These still allowed the SMI to return above 12,000 points to its highest point of the day, to finish just below this level.
In New York, Wall Street was trading in mixed order in the morning after a positive opening in the wake of the job creation figure in the United States, well above economists’ expectations. Investors remained attentive to the situation in the Middle East.
254,000 jobs were created in the United States in September, a figure significantly higher than the 150,000 expected by economists and an increase compared to last month. In addition, the month of August was revised upwards, from 142,000 to 159,000.
The unemployment rate fell to 4.1% in September from 4.2% in August. On the remuneration side, hourly wages increased by 0.4% over one month, 4% over one year, in the private sector.
“The jobs report was better than expected, which means there is no need to worry about an imminent recession,” Sam Stovall of CFRA told AFP.
“However, this reinforces the firm stance displayed by Fed Chairman (Jerome) Powell in recent days, according to which the Fed is in no hurry to lower its rates,” he added.
In Switzerland, the month of September was marked by a slight increase in unemployment, the number of people registered with regional employment offices (ORP) having increased by 1,891 (+1.7%) compared to August, for a total of 22,419. The unemployment rate increased by 0.1 percentage point to 2.5%.
Adjusted for seasonal variations (CVS), the proportion of unemployed also recorded an increase of 0.1 point to 2.6%, according to data from the State Secretariat for the Economy (Seco). Over one year, the rate increased by 0.5%, including seasonal and non-seasonal fluctuations.
On the tourism front, hotels and spa centers continued their upward trend in August. The number of overnight stays even saw a clear acceleration, by 3.6% compared to 0.3% in July, to 4.81 million overnight stays. Over the first eight months of the year, the increase was 2.3% to 29.64 million units, according to provisional data from the Federal Statistical Office.
The SMI ended down 0.13% to 11,997.09 points, with a low of 11,958.56 and a high of 12,030.88. The SLI lost marginally 0.04% to 1,968.20 points and the SPI 0.06% to 16,033.56 points. Of the 30 star stocks, 14 fell and 16 advanced.
SGS (-1.8%) finished bottom, behind Givaudan (-1.6) and Lonza (-1.4%).
Pharma heavyweight Roche (-1.0%) and food giant Nestlé (-0.3%) weighed on the index, while Novartis (+0.3%) returned to green in second part of the afternoon.
At the other end of the ranking, today’s podium is made up of Swatch (+2.7%), SIG Group (+2.0%) and Sandoz (+1.7%).
Purchases of shares in the Biel watchmaker by the Hayek founding family continue. After acquiring registered shares worth 31 million Swiss francs this summer, Nayla, Nick and Marc did it again on Friday. According to a management transaction published on the Swiss Stock Exchange website, 80,371 Swatch bearer shares changed hands for just over 14.3 million.
Once in the top three, the action of temporary employment giant Adecco (+0.5%) weakened somewhat towards the end. Analysts from RBC and Bernstein lowered the price target, while confirming “outperform” and “market perform” respectively. The outlook for the temporary employment market remains mixed, particularly in France and the United States, noted the Bernstein analyst. That of RBC explains the reduction in the objective by a negative assessment in important regions such as North America and Northern Europe, as well as due to persistent geopolitical uncertainties.
In the broader market, the rating agency Moody’s confirmed the “Aa2” rating for long-term deposits and the “A2” rating for long-term senior unsecured liabilities of the Berne Cantonal Bank (BCBE, +0, 9%). The other assessments are unchanged. The outlook is maintained at “stable”.
The dairy processor Emmi (-0.5%) has now swallowed up the French industrial pastry chef Mademoiselle Desserts. When this takeover was announced at the beginning of July, the takeover target was valued at around 900 million euros. The Lucerne group has also confirmed its objectives for the current financial year.
The Relief Therapeutics laboratory (+14.6%) reported positive preliminary results for a so-called proof-of-concept clinical study for its experimental treatment for phenylketonuria named RLF-ODO32.
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