Sam Altman’s bid to return to OpenAI after being ousted Friday faltered late Sunday, as the board that fired him opted not to agree to proposed terms of his reinstatement. Emmett Shear, former CEO of Twitch, was named interim CEO, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Altman was at the company’s office earlier in the day, his camp having succeeded in bringing the board to the negotiating table as investors and many employees pushed over the weekend to help him retake control of one of Silicon Valley’s most valuable and high-profile startups. The former chief executive officer entered with a guest badge on Sunday and posted on X: “first and last time i ever wear one of these.”

The Swiss stock market ended on a bright note on Friday, after staying firm right through the day's session amid optimism global central banks will likely stop hiking rates and might even consider rate cuts next year. Data showing sharp jump in Swiss industrial production in the third quarter aided sentiment. The benchmark SMI, which climbed to 10,763.96 around late morning, ended the day's session with a gain of 94.30 points or 0.89% at 10,737.37. Among SMI components, only Kuehne & Nagel and Swisscom failed to make it to positive territory today. The two stocks edged down marginally. UBS Group rallied nearly 3%. Richemont climbed 2.41%. Zurich Insurance Group, Partners Group, Swiss Life Holding, Geberit and Novartis gained 1 to 1.6%. Swiss Re and Sonova both gained nearly 1%. ABB and Lonza Group gained 0.54% and 0.48%, respectively. In the Mid Price Index, Tecan Group surged nearly 4%. Avolta gained about 2.4% and Adecco advanced 1.85%. Georg Fischer, Straumann Holding, Temenos Group, Schindler Holding and Belimo Holding ended higher by 1 to 1.5%. Meyer Burger Tech ended down 1.86%, and Sandoz drifted down 1.28%. Lindt & Spruengli closed nearly 0.5% down.

European stocks closed notably higher on Friday amid rising optimism global central banks, including the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and European Central Bank will likely hold interest rates, and might even consider a couple of rate cuts by the middle of next year. Recent data showing cooling inflation in the U.S. and Europe have helped ease concerns about the outlook for interest rates. Investors shrugged official data showing that U.K. retail sales declined unexpectedly in October as a result of rising interest rates. The pan European Stoxx 600 climbed 1.01%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 surged 1.26%, Germany's DAX jumped 0.84% and France's CAC 40 gained 0.91%, while Switzerland's SMI ended 0.89% up. Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Turkiye closed with sharp to moderate gains. In the UK market, British Land Company, Standard Chartered, Natwest Group, DCC, ICP, Barratt Developments, Anglo American Plc, TUI and Prudential gained 3 to 4.5%. Land Securities, Flutter Entertainment, ITV, Barclays, 3i, Vodafone Group, Fresnillo, Hargreaves Lansdown, Glencore, Aviva, Royal Dutch Shell and EasyJet also ended sharply higher. In the German market, Siemens Energy climbed nearly 8%.

U.S. investors’ appetite for risk has returned. The S&P 500 rose 0.1% Friday, capping off a 2.2% gain for the week. The broad-based index, which booked a third straight weekly advance, has closed higher in 13 of the last 15 sessions. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was little changed Friday, while the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.1%. Tuesday’s cooler-than-expected inflation report was the latest reason for investors to cheer, helping extend a furious November rally in which the S&P 500 has jumped 7.6%. Traders are betting the Federal Reserve’s rate-hike campaign is done for now and that inflation will head toward target levels without a steep recession - the elusive “soft landing.” Interest-rate derivatives now indicate that traders see a greater-than-50% chance of an interest-rate cut by the Fed’s May meeting. Gap shares soared more than 30% Friday after the clothing retailer posted stronger-than-expected results. Discount retailer Ross Stores was up 7.2%. Target shares gained 20% on the week, their best performance since 2019. Home builder stocks have also been getting a boost, with investors expecting that a pause in the Fed’s interest rate hikes will help ease mortgage rates and fuel housing demand. Shares of PulteGroup, Toll Brothers, and KB Home each jumped more than 5% this week. On Friday, data showed housing starts rose 1.9% in October from the previous month, above economists’ estimates for a slight decrease.

The stock markets in East Asia and Australia were predominantly up on Monday. Sentiment is somewhat supported by the Chinese central bank, which has announced stimulus measures. The stock markets were led by Hong Kong (+1.7%) and South Korea (+1.1%) on Monday.

U.S. bond yields were little-changed Friday, with the 10-year Treasury yield closing at 4.441%, from 4.444% Thursday. The benchmark yield is down more than four tenths of a percentage point in November after touching 5% late last month.

UBS raises the Morphosys target to 47 (45) EUR – Buy
SocGen lowers the Infineon target to 43 (44) EUR – Buy
Bank of America raises the Siemens target to 187 (185) EUR – Buy

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