Apple Inc. on Wednesday began a third year of nudging customers to iPhones with 5G-capable technology, betting iterative enhancements will still appeal to buyers who haven’t upgraded to the latest offerings. The iPhone 14 lineup took center stage for customers and investors at the company’s annual September event at its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters and on its website. The new models are an evolutionary offering after the late 2020’s iPhone 12 brought 5G cellular capability for the first time. 5G has been touted as offering faster download speeds, appealing for streaming video and videogames. The tech giant focused on safety features for the iPhone 14 lineup and newest smartwatches, adding sensors that can detect car crashes and alert authorities. The new smartphones will get satellite connectivity for sending emergency messages to use in areas not touched by cellular towers. Demand for the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 lineups helped Apple post record profits and sales in the past two years. iPhone revenue rose 39% in fiscal 2021 and is expected to rise another 6.7% to a record $205 billion this fiscal year, which ends later this month. Apple shares rose 0.9 percent.

Save for a few minutes around mid-morning, the Switzerland stock market stayed weak on Wednesday as worries about slowing growth amid rising interest rates weighed on sentiment, prompting investors to stay cautious. The benchmark SMI ended with a loss of 29.02 points or 0.27% at 10,805.16. The index dropped to a low of 10,727.12 around midafternoon. Zurich Insurance Group, Swisscom and Swiss Life Holding shed about 1.4%. Nestle drifted down 1.1%. UBS Group, Credit Suisse and Logitech also closed weak. Holcim gained 1.1% and Geberit climbed nearly 1%. Alcon, Lonza Group, Richemont, Partners Group and Sika gained 0.4 to 0.6%. Bachem Holding ended nearly 4% down. Dufry shed about 3%, while Straumann Holding, Temenos Group and BB Biotech lost 1.4 to 1.7%. Clariant surged 2%, Cembra Money Bank advanced 1.4%, Kuehne & Nagel climbed 1.3% and Lindt & Spruengli gained 1.15%. Data released by Swiss National Bank showed foreign exchange reserves in Switzerland increased to CHF 859.6 billion in August from CHF 849.4 billion in July.

European stock markets closed mixed on Wednesday as the euro strengthened against the dollar, with investors anticipating a bigger-than-usual rate hike from the European Central Bank (ECB) after its monetary policy meeting on Thursday. The Stoxx Europe 600 index fell 0.6% to 412.0 points. In Paris, the CAC 40 and the SBF 120 closed flat. The DAX 40 in Frankfurt gained 0.4%, while the FTSE 100 in London lost 0.9%. Cineworld Group PLC, the owner of Regal Cinemas, filed for bankruptcy Wednesday after a sluggish recovery in theater admissions fell short of the company’s financial needs. Cineworld, the world’s second-largest movie theater chain behind rival AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc., filed a chapter 11 petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Cineworld was preparing to file for bankruptcy in the U.S. While movie-theater attendance has recovered somewhat as Covid-19 fears wane, ticket sales still lag behind their prepandemic levels. Shares in Ubisoft Entertainment SA, the maker of the Assassin’s Creed videogame series, plunged Wednesday after Tencent Holdings Ltd. acquired a minority stake in the family holding that controls the French videogame company. Ubisoft said Tuesday that Tencent had bought a 49.9% stake in Guillemot Brothers Limited, the holding company of the Guillemot family that founded Ubisoft in 1986.

U.S. stock benchmarks moved higher Wednesday even as investors considered risks to the global economy. The S&P 500 rose 71.68 points, or 1.8%, to 3979.87. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 435.98 points, or 1.4%, to 31581.28. The Nasdaq Composite gained 246.99 points, or 2.1%, to 11791.90. That snapped a seven-day losing streak, the worst stretch for the tech-heavy index since 2016. Each of the S&P 500's 11 sectors notched gains, besides energy stocks, pushing the benchmark to its best one-day performance since Aug. 10. GameStop Corp. reported a decrease in sales and a wider loss for its fiscal second quarter, as efforts by the videogame retailer to turn its business around continued to fall flat. The Grapevine, Texas-based company said Wednesday that it had $1.14 billion in net sales for the quarter through the end of July, down from $1.18 billion a year earlier. On an adjusted basis, the retailer reported a loss of 35 cents a share, compared with a loss of 19 cents a share over the same period a year ago.

The stock exchanges in East Asia and Australia are not showing a uniform trend on Thursday. While in many places the good Wall Street indicators are boosting prices, the Chinese stock exchanges are lagging behind. Here, economic concerns have gained the upper hand, according to traders, who point to declining oil imports, which indicate lower Chinese demand. In Tokyo, a significant upward revision of economic growth is driving prices, with the Nikkei index gaining 2.0 per cent. The Shanghai Composite is trading slightly lower. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index lost 0.4 per cent. The sub-index of technology stocks is holding its ground after the sector posted strong gains in the US the previous evening. A tailwind came from lower bond interest rates.

Yields on 10-year U.S. Treasurys declined to 3.264% from 3.339% Tuesday. Yields fall when bond prices rise.

CS lowers Belimo target to CHF 335 (411) – Underperform
CS raises U-Blox target by 47% to CHF 135 – Neutral
UBS raises Deutsche Börse target to EUR 210 (200) – Buy

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