The Swiss voice in the world since 1935
Top stories
Stay in touch with Switzerland

Swiss stock market closes the week in the red

graph
The Swiss stock market: not immune to fluctuations in the US and elsewhere. Keystone-SDA

The Swiss Market Index (SMI) closed the week down 4.2%. After the US stock exchange was closed on Monday for a public holiday, the SMI fell every day.

The week was marked by concerns about the US economy, which sent markets around the world into a tailspin which even the rather defensive Swiss stock exchange was unable to escape.

After a gloomy week, the SMI fell by a further 1.02% to 11,908 points on Friday.

+ Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

The biggest weekly losses among SMI stocks were recorded by Zug-based asset manager Partners Group and the luxury goods group Richemont, each of which lost almost 11%. At Partners Group, disappointing half-year figures were largely responsible, while Richemont shares suffered from the slowing economy and fears that the weakness in demand might not just be temporary.

Competitor Swatch also lost almost 8%.

The US labour market report on Friday, which was eagerly awaited by investors, also only provided a short-term recovery. Economists spoke of more or less solid data indicating a turnaround in interest rates in the US which investors had been eagerly awaiting.

More

The report had not confirmed fears that a recession was imminent in the US, said one trader. The data also pointed to a “soft landing” scenario, whereby the US Federal Reserve is likely to initiate a turnaround in interest rates in just under two weeks with a cut of 25 basis points. A cut of 50 points is not yet off the table either.

Adapted from German by DeepL/dos

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.

Popular Stories

Most Discussed

News

Heavy crowds expected at Swiss airports

More

Crowded airports expected in Switzerland this summer

This content was published on Switzerland's main airports are preparing for a busy summer holiday period. A number of changes have been introduced to improve passenger flows that are expected to be well above average in July and August.

Read more: Crowded airports expected in Switzerland this summer
Beznau power plant restarted after the Aare River cools down

More

Swiss nuclear power plant restarts as Aare River cools down

This content was published on The Beznau nuclear power station in canton Aargau has been generating electricity again since Tuesday, as the Aare River has cooled down. Both reactors had been disconnected last week.

Read more: Swiss nuclear power plant restarts as Aare River cools down
The ICRC has to cut its budget for next year by 17 per cent

More

Red Cross faces 17% budget cut

This content was published on The International Committee of the Red Cross must cut its budget by 17% by the end of the year.

Read more: Red Cross faces 17% budget cut

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR