Oracle stock slid late Monday, after the database software giant reported fiscal second quarter earnings and sales that were just shy of consensus estimates. With the 47-year-old database software giant's stock up 80% on the year heading into the report, one analyst called the stock's decline following the results "a story of expectations." Oracle said in a news release that it earned an adjusted $1.47 per share on sales of $14.06 billion for the November-ended quarter. Analysts polled by FactSet projected the Austin, Texas-based company would post adjusted earnings of $1.48 per share on sales of $14.12 billion. Sales increased 9% while earnings increased 9.7%. On the stock market today , Oracle stock is down more than 5% to 180.37 in after-hours action. Shares fell by as much as 8% following the report, before recovering. Before that, Oracle stock lost a fraction to close at 190.54 in regular trading Monday.

The Switzerland market started off on a positive note on Monday but slipped into the red soon thereafter, and despite emerging above the flat line around mid afternoon, fell again and ended the day's session marginally down. The mood remained cautious with investors awaiting monetary policy announcements from the Swiss National Bank and European Central Bank. The benchmark SMI, which advanced to 11,829.09 in early trades, dropped to a low of 11,761.72 before eventually closing at 11,761.72 with a loss of 18.93 points or 0.16%. Holcim ended down 1.55%. Givaudan and Sandoz Group lost 1.17% and 1.12%, respectively. Lonza Group, Swisscom, Novartis, Zurich Insurance Group, Partners Group, Schindler Ps and UBS Group closed lower by 0.3 to 0.7%. Among the gainers, Swatch Group rallied about 2.7%. Richemont climbed 2.06%. Adecco and Straumann Holding gained 1.75% and 1.51%, respectively. Julius Baer climbed 0.89% and Sika closed up 0.81%. Data from the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs said Switzerland's consumer confidence rose to -37.2 in November, improving from -48 in the same month a year earlier.

Europe
European stocks closed higher on Monday with many markets in the region extending gains to an eighth straight session. While strong buying in the mining sector amid expectations of more stimulus from the Chinese government contributed to the positive mood in the markets, geopolitical tensions limited the upside. Investors awaited the European Central Bank's monetary policy meeting, and conumer and producer price inflation data from the U.S., due later in the week. A measure of China's consumer inflation unexpectedly decelerated in November and factory deflation eased, raising hopes for more proactive fiscal and monetary policies next year to boost domestic consumption. The Politburo, a top decision-making body led by President Xi Jinping, said today it will stabilize property and stock markets while strengthening the 'unconventional counter-cyclical' adjustment. Investors also monitored the flare-up of tensions in Syria and awaited a European Central Bank policy meeting and the U.S. inflation figures this week for direction. The ECB is expected to cut interest rates again this week amid worries about how fiscal policy will develop in Germany and France. The pan European Stoxx 600 edged up 0.14%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 gained 0.52% and France's CAC 40 closed up 0.72%. Germany's DAX ended down 0.19%, while Switzerland's SMI closed down 0.16%. Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Sweden and Turkiye closed higher. Belgium, Denmark and Spain ended weak. In the UK market, Vistry Group rallied more than 6%. Antofagasta, Fresnillo, Glencore, BP, Rio Tinto, GSK, Prudential, WPP, Endeavour Mining, Anglo American Plc, Hiscox, Shell, Spirax Group, Berkeley Group Holdings and Kingfisher gained 2 to 5%. Whitbread, BAE Systems, IHG, Auto Trader Group, Next, Ashtead Group, Relx, Vodafone Group, Compass Group, Coca-Cola HBC, Smith (DS), Segro, BT Group and Land Securities closed down 1 to 2.7%. In the German market, Mercedes-Benz, BASF, Porsche, BMW and Infineon gained 2 to 3.4%. Siemens Healthineers, Volkswagen, Brenntag, Continental, Beiersdorf, Merck, Bayer, Zalando and Qiagen advanced 1 to 3%. Sartorius gained more than 1% after naming a new CEO.

United States
After showing a lack of direction early in the session, stocks moved mostly lower over the course of the trading day on Monday. The major averages all moved to the downside, with the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 pulling back off last Friday's record closing highs. The major averages finished the day firmly in negative territory. The Dow fell 240.59 points or 0.5 percent to 44,401.93, the Nasdaq slid 123.08 points or 0.6 percent to 19,736.69 and the S&P 500 declined 37.42 points or 0.6 percent to 6,052.85. A slump by shares of Nvidia (NVDA) weighed on the markets, with the AI darling tumbling by 2.6 percent on the day. The drop by Nvidia came amid news a Chinese regulator has launched an investigation into whether the chipmaker violated the country's antimonopoly laws. Arthur J. Gallagher has agreed to acquire AssuredPartners in a $13.45 billion deal. The insurance brokerage, risk-management and consulting-services firm said Monday that buying the insurance broker would expand its retail middle-market property and casualty focus across the U.S. Gallagher intends to acquire shares of AssuredPartners’ parent company from its private equity backers for gross consideration of $13.45 billion, which doesn’t include a $1 billion deferred tax asset that is expected to reduce the consideration to $12.45 billion. The Rolling Meadows, Ill., company said it would fund the transaction with long-term debt, short-term borrowings, free cash and common equity. Hershey rose sharply on a report that said Mondelez International had approached the chocolate maker about a potential takeover. The stock rose as much as 14% to $200, putting it on pace for the largest same-day percentage increase since June 30, 2016, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Mondelez was down 3.3%. The gains came after Bloomberg reported that Mondelez had made a preliminary approach to the U.S. chocolate maker about a deal that would create a company with sales of roughly $50 billion. Hershey and Mondelez declined to comment.

Asia
The stock markets in East Asia rose on Tuesday. While hopes of economic stimulus from the Chinese government continue to fuel buying sentiment, there is a strong countermovement in Seoul following the previous day's losses in response to the political crisis in South Korea. The Shanghai Composite jumped 1.3 per cent, while the HSI in Hong Kong followed up the previous day's rally with a gain of 0.7 per cent.

Bonds
US Treasury yields edged up on Monday as traders analysed geopolitical events ranging from the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria to China's efforts to revive its economy. At around 7.10am, the ten-year US Treasury yield was down 1.4 basis points at 4.189%. The two-year rate was down 0.7 basis points at 4.124%.

Analysis
BoA raises the Aurubis target to EUR 59 (56) – Underperform
BoA raises the SAP target to EUR 283 (243) – Buy
JPM lowers STMicro to Neutral (Overw.)/Target EUR 30 (35)

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