US storm continues to sweep through Swiss stock market

The storm from the US continues to sweep through the Swiss stock market. Keystone-SDA

The Swiss stock market continued to trade in the red mid-afternoon on Monday, following in the wake of the world's stock markets, which fell heavily as a result of the trade war launched by Donald Trump.

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On the other side of the Atlantic, Trump’s trade policy continued to disrupt stock markets. On Monday, the Republican president criticised the United States’ economic partners for “plundering” it. He described China as “the biggest profiteer of all”.

Meanwhile, the European Union was trying to agree on a response. European foreign trade ministers met in Luxembourg on Monday to “prepare” a joint response to the US measures, a “paradigm shift” to which the EU must adapt, according to the European Commissioner for Trade.

The EU has offered the United States a total and reciprocal exemption from customs duties for industrial products, in an attempt to avoid a trade war, Ursula von der Leyen told a press conference in Brussels.

+ US tariff shock: adding up the Swiss bill

Tariffs will “probably increase inflation” and “slow growth” in the United States, warned the head of the major US bank JPMorgan Chase on Monday in his annual letter to investors.

Jan Viebig, investment director at Oddo BHF SE, agreed. “The political ideas of the new US president Donald Trump are unsettling market participants. This has reinforced the signs of an economic slowdown that were already evident in the US in the final weeks of 2024. The broad S&P 500 stock index has lost around 8.3% since the start of 2025,” he wrote.

On Wall Street, the indices were heading for a red opening. Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures lost 2.07%, 2.27% and 2.38% respectively.

Swiss stocks

At around 3pm, the SMI was down 4.80% at 11,084.66 points. The SLI was down 4.90% at 1,774.88 points, while the SPI was down 4.53% at 14,851.77 points. All 30 leading stocks were in the red.

Lindt (-1.0%) was the share to lose the least ground, ahead of Sonova (-2.1%) and Schindler (-2.2%).

Logitech (-3.7%) was not spared by the massive sell-off, its production in China being particularly affected by the new taxes imposed by Washington.

The three heavyweights Nestlé (-3.9%), Novartis (-4.6%) and Roche (-5.6%) were unable to reverse the trend.

+ Swiss president warns against tariff ‘alarmism’

Swiss Re (-4.9%) was also struggling. GAM (+0.1%) and the reinsurer announced an investment partnership to issue catastrophe bonds and insurance certificates.

Julius Bär was also down (-5.5%). The Zurich-based asset manager is continuing the organisational transformation launched in February under the leadership of new CEO Stefan Bollinger. This includes the creation of a subdivision of the new Global Wealth Management committee, called Global Products and Solution.

Swiss Life (-5.9%), Sika (-6.1%) and Adecco (-7.8%) fell to the bottom of the rankings.

Partners Group (-8.6%) was the worst performer.

The mood on the broader market was also gloomy. Chemical-pharmaceutical stocks, which were still in the red, recovered slightly: Relief Therapeutics (-6.6%), Dottikon (-3.5%) and Xlife Science (-7.8%).

Finally, Dormakaba (-3.4%) was also down. The Zurich-based security access specialist has agreed to form a joint venture with Chinese construction equipment manufacturer Guangdong Kinlong Hardware Products.

Translated from French by DeepL/ts

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