ZURICH. The Swiss Market Index opened the week on the back foot. Before the bell, Julius Baer’s indication put the SMI 0.21 per cent lower at 14,780. By shortly after 9am the cash index was around 14,709, and Swiss commentary described a market that was giving ground. Friday’s close had been 14,810.66, up 0.36 per cent, which left Zurich near the highs even as Wall Street sold off.
The morning briefing from AWP blamed the softer tone on sales of the defensive heavyweights. Wall Street’s Friday session was the cue: the Dow Jones fell 1.09 per cent to 51,770 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 2.86 per cent to 25,437. Technology-heavy indexes in Japan and South Korea recovered after a weak start, the Nikkei was last down 0.33 per cent at 63,082, and the logic in Zurich reversed. When tech steadies, the shares the world buys for safety get sold. Thursday’s record close at 14,756.86 was that trade in the other direction. Monday is the unwind, at least at the open.
Oil, the franc, and a quiet Swiss calendar
Brent crude was down 6.52 per cent at 109.97 dollars in the morning note. West Texas Intermediate was down 3.50 per cent at 100.48 dollars. Market commentary in Zurich tied the slide to hopes of diplomacy in the oil market, not to a new Swiss supply decision. Bitcoin was at 78,035 dollars, off 0.35 per cent from Friday morning. The franc was little changed: the euro bought 0.9204 francs, against 0.9197 late on Friday, and the dollar bought 0.8221, against 0.8236. The euro itself was firmer, at 1.1195 dollars.
Friday’s other Swiss closes were a SPI up 0.26 per cent at 20,847 and an SMIM up 0.13 per cent at 3,204. The DAX had fallen 0.85 per cent to 25,818. The domestic diary is thin after a week of central bank decisions and quarterly results. Traders were already positioning for Tuesday’s US midterm elections. That is a reason for a quieter Zurich session, not for a quiet oil market.
The company notes that moved the smaller names
Autoneum was indicated 1.2 per cent higher after agreeing to buy France’s Trèves group, a deal that would push combined sales above CHF 2.9 billion if it closes as planned in the first quarter of 2027. The terms, the staff count and the synergy target are set out separately. Arbonia cut its 2026 outlook: revenue is now expected around last year’s CHF 625 million, because the German business is normalising more slowly than hoped, and EBITDA is put at about CHF 50 million, with annual savings of at least CHF 5 million from 2027.
Medartis said it could beat its forecast of 17 to 19 per cent organic core sales growth, with the core EBITDA margin at the top of the guided range, and pointed to more than 2,000 procedures in the United States with its Touch thumb prosthesis by October. Infracore gave a binding commitment of CHF 70 million for Spital Wetzikon if the composition agreement there fails. Zurich Airport said October flight movements were only slightly higher. Skan said its chief financial officer and a division head will be in court on 5 November in an insider-trading case, that the case against a former chairman has been dropped, and that a first-instance judgment is expected on 17 November. The blue-chip story of the morning is still the defensive selling. The news that will outlast the session is in the smaller announcements, and in a fuel bill that Swiss has already said passengers will share in 2027.