2023-09-19 06:46:05
Zurich (awp) – The Swiss stock market should open lower on Tuesday, following the decline already suffered the day before. The week will be marked by monetary policy announcements from the American Federal Reserve (Fed) on Wednesday as well as the Bank of England (BoE) and the Swiss National Bank (SNB) on Thursday. While awaiting these events, caution seems to remain in order.
The New York Stock Exchange ended slightly higher Monday evening, struggling to take a clear direction before the start of the Fed meeting. The latter is expected to pause in raising its key rates.
“The strikes at the factories of General Motors, Ford and Stellantis weighed on market sentiment,” noted analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya at Swissquote. While manufacturers offered wage increases of 20% over the next four years, unions refused and demanded 40%, half of which immediately.
Concerning the SNB, the majority of economists are counting on an increase of 25 basis points before a pause in the monetary tightening carried out since June 2022 by the Swiss issuing institute.
In Switzerland, foreign trade ended the month of August with a surplus of 3.2 billion Swiss francs, driven by the sharp increase in exports.
On the Swiss Stock Exchange around 8:07 a.m., the flagship SMI index was preparing to open down 0.09% to 11,080.60 points, according to prior indications published by Julius Bär. The day before, it closed down 0.96%.
After a fall of 14.7% the day before, it remains to be seen whether Lonza shares (-0.1%) will experience a respite. General manager Pierre-Alain Ruffieux will leave the company “by mutual agreement” at the end of September. Until his successor is appointed, Chairman of the Board Albert Baehny will serve in an interim capacity.
The three heavyweights of the rating Roche, Novartis and Nestlé (all -0.1%) were part of the trend.
On the broader market, Zehnder (no pre-market price) announced the end of its share buyback program, which allowed it to get its hands on around 5% of the registered shares in circulation, for a total amount of ‘approximately 34.4 million Swiss francs.
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