Swiss Life intends to further expand its fee-based business in the coming years and thus significantly increase its profitability. The financial group has set itself new, ambitious financial targets for the period up to 2027 under the leadership of Matthias Aellig. Shareholders should continue to receive high dividend payments in the future. The company is aiming for a return on equity in the range of 17 to 19 per cent in future, as announced on Tuesday ahead of its investor meeting. Previously, a return of 10 to 12 per cent was set as the target and this was clearly exceeded in some cases. Swiss Life aims to achieve further growth in the fee-based business with financial advice and asset management. The fee result is expected to climb above the billion-euro mark by 2027. In the current year, however, the result is likely to be ‘only’ at the lower end of the old target range of 850 to 900 million. According to earlier statements, the reason for this is the faltering property business in Germany and France. Swiss Life intends to pay out even larger portions of the profit to shareholders. To this end, the Group is raising the dividend payout ratio to over 75 per cent from the previous level of over 60 per cent. The money for this will be generated from cash transfers from the operating units to the holding company, which are expected to total CHF 3.6 to 3.8 billion over three years. In addition, the Group is launching a share buyback program worth 750 million francs.

The Swiss stock market got off to a favourable start to the week. The SMI is still almost 1,200 points short of its high. The index gained 0.6 per cent to 11,829 points. Among the 20 SMI stocks, there were 16 gainers and only 3 losers, with Sonova closing unchanged. A total of 17.39 million shares were traded (Friday: 19.84 million). The list of winners was a colourful mix, with hardly any sector trends discernible. The day's winners in the SMI were Richemont, posting a gain of 2.6 per cent. Sika (+1.8 per cent) also climbed significantly, followed by Swiss Re (+1.6 per cent), ABB (+1.5 per cent) and Logitech (+1.5 per cent). Holcim advanced by 1.2 per cent. The building materials producer had announced the sale of its Nigerian business to China to Huaxin Cement. Analysts at Citi spoke of an attractive price, while noting that Holcim holds a 41.5 per cent stake in Huaxin Cement and thus continues to have an economic interest in Lafarge Africa. Novartis (-0.1%) was hardly moved by the news that it had signed a collaboration and licensing agreement with the US pharmaceutical company PTC Therapeutics for its Huntington's disease treatment programme.

Europe
The European stock markets edged higher on Monday, with the exception of the Paris Bourse, hit by fears of a possible collapse of Michel Barnier's government. The Stoxx Europe 600 index gained 0.7% to 513.6 points. In Paris, the CAC 40 finished close to balance and the SBF 120 lost 0.1%. The DAX 40 in Frankfurt climbed 1.6%, while the FTSE 100 in London added 0.3%. On Sunday, the board of directors of Stellantis (down 6.4%) accepted the resignation with immediate effect of the car manufacturer's CEO, Carlos Tavares. Worldline, whose shares have been in serious trouble for more than three years, jumped 14% after Reuters reported that private equity firms were interested in the payment specialist. The troubled IT services group Atos (down 18.1% at €0.74) announced on Monday the success of its capital increase with preferential subscription rights (‘DPS’) for a gross amount, including issue premium, of €233.3 million. Carrefour (-4.8%) confirmed on Monday that it had successfully refinanced its two credit lines totalling €3.9 billion, combining them into a single facility worth €4 billion. Ipsos (-4.4%) revealed on Monday to be in discussions concerning a possible acquisition of British audience measurement specialist Kantar Media.

United States
U.S. stocks were mixed on Monday. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite climbed about 0.2% and 1%, respectively. The Dow industrials fell 0.3%. The gains came after investors parsed a batch of freshly released economic data. The Institute for Supply Management’s purchasing managers’ index of manufacturing activity showed continued weakness in factory demand last month. Spending on construction projects hit a record high level of $2.17 trillion in October, the Commerce Department said. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average both ended last week at records, capping November as their best month of the year. Some investors are bracing for volatility at the end of this week when the Labor Department releases jobs data for November. The report will be the last before the Federal Reserve’s next interest-rate decision and could be distorted by the impact of hurricanes and strikes before November. Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump’s fresh tariff threats over the weekend are stirring currency markets. The U.S. dollar strengthened after Trump said Saturday, he would impose 100% tariffs on countries that try to replace the greenback as the world’s reserve currency. Shares in Super Micro Computer surged 29% after the company said a review of its accounting hadn’t supported claims made by former auditor Ernst & Young or raised major concerns about senior management. Bitcoin settled at around $96,000, below Friday’s settling price.

Asia
In Asia, major indexes broadly closed with gains on Tuesday. On the Tokyo stock exchange, the Nikkei index was pulled up by technology stocks by 2.2 per cent. Tokyo Electron rose by 4.4 per cent, Advantest by 4.6 per cent and Softbank by 3.4 per cent. The South Korean stock exchange also climbed substantially. The Kospi increased by 1.8 per cent. Samsung Electronics, the index heavyweight, advanced by 0.4 per cent and SK Hynix gained 2.2 per cent. LG Energy Solution, the battery manufacturer for electric vehicles, lost 1.3 per cent after General Motors decided to sell its stake in a joint venture plant in Michigan. Meanwhile, the Chinese stock markets are lagging behind. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index edged up 0.2 per cent, while on the Chinese mainland the Shanghai Composite was little changed.

Bonds
U.S. government debt sold off on Monday, pushing yields off their October lows, after a new tariff threat from President-elect Donald Trump reignited worries over inflation. The 10-year Treasury note yield climbed 2 basis points (0.02 percentage point) to 4.198%. The 2-year Treasury note yield increased by less than 4 basis points to 4.194%.

Analysis
JP Morgan downgrades Swatch to Underperform (Neutral)/target CHF 135 (180) - Trader
Price target Inficon: UBS lowers to CHF 1400 (1445) - Buy
Target price Zurich Airport: Goldman Sachs upgrades to CHF 270 (253) - Buy

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