Comcast’s planned breakup is sending Charter Communications’ stock soaring. The cable giant plans to spin off NBCUniversal and Sky operations, leaving Comcast to focus on broadband, wireless and cable. That has investors betting on the prospect of Comcast acquiring Charter after the split’s completion to bolster its broadband operations amid the prospect of growing competition. “The core regulatory questions [for a potential bid] become cleaner: broadband concentration, local market overlap, wireless bundling and the FCC public interest review,” research firm MKI Global Partners said in a note today. That’s not to say a bid would be inevitable. Charter has market value of more than $18 billion, which makes it big bite for any potential acquirer. The deal would also invite political scrutiny, MKI said. Charter is already at the forefront of consolidation in the sector. It’s in the process of acquiring rival Cox Communications. The company has also agreed to buy its largest shareholder, Liberty Broadband, in an all-stock deal. Broadband companies, under threat from wireless operators as well as satellite providers, such as Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite connectivity company, face increased pressure to gain scale. Case in point: On the same day Comcast announced its split, Rocket Lab struck a $8 billion deal to buy Iridium Communications, a satellite operator.

After a marginal uptick and a subsequent drop that resulted in a negative spell till about a couple of hours past noon, the Switzerland market recovered and spent the rest of the trading session in positive territory on Monday. The benchmark SMI, which dropped to a low of 14,123.64 settled with a gain of 51.19 points or 0.36% at 14,223.90, the day's high. Galderma Group, the top gainer in the SMI, moved up 4.25%. VAT Group moved up 2.25%. Richemont, Julius Baer, Nestle, Swiss Re, ABB and Logitech International gained 1%-1.7%. Sandoz Group gained 1.8%. Sandoz said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration accepted for review two applications for generic versions of Eli Lilly's Zepbound and Mounjaro, its popular shots for obesity and diabetes. Lonza Group, Roche, Zurich Insurance, Kuehne + Nagel and Givaudan also closed higher. Amrize ended down nearly 4.5%. Holcim closed 3.81% down, and Sika drifted lower by 2.51%. Sonova shed 1.8% and Alcon ended with a loss of 1.2%. Geberit, Swisscom, Helvetia Baloise Holding and Schindler Ps also closed weak. Sandoz said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration accepted for review two applications for generic versions of Eli Lilly's Zepbound and Mounjaro, its popular shots for obesity and diabetes.

Europe
The major European markets closed marginally down on Monday as uncertainty about U.S. and Iran entering a lasting truce, and concerns about inflation and possible interest rate hikes by central banks rendered the mood cautious. The focus was also on the Sintra Forum, an annual ECB event that focuses on central banking. The Sintra Forum, being held from today through Wednesday (June 29-July 1), brings together central bank governors, academics, financial market representatives, journalists and others to exchange views on current policy issues and discuss the Forum's key topic from a longer-term perspective. The pan European Stoxx 600 edged up 0.04%. The UK's FTSE 100 ended 0.23% down, Germany's DAX closed lower by 0.18% and France's CAC 40 shed 0.21%. Switzerland's SMI gained 0.36%. Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Poland, Spain and Türkiye closed weak. Denmark and Iceland edged down marginally. Czech Republic, Greece, Netherland, Norway, Portugal, Russia and Sweden closed on firm note. Finland ended flat. In the UK market, Metlen Energy & Metals climbed 2.85%. Entain moved up 2.35% and Lion Finance Group gained about 2.25%. SSE, Experian, Convatec Group and ICG gained 1%-1.6%. The Sage Group advanced nearly 1%. Babcock International Group dropped 5.1%. Fresnillo and Endeavour Mining closed down by 3% and 2.9%, respectively. Persimmon, Anglo American Plc, Barratt Redrow, Vodafone Group and Whitbread lost 2%-2.5%. In the German market, RWE gained 3.6%. Rheinmetall and Siemens Energy moved up 3.1% and 2.1%, respectively. Munich RE gained 1.6% and SAP ended 1.1% up. Zalando and Hannover RE also closed notably higher.

United States
After moving seeing significant volatility early in the session, stocks moved sharply higher over the course of the trading day on Monday. The major averages all moved to the upside, with the Dow reaching a new record closing high above 52,000. The Dow gave back some ground late in the day, but the Nasdaq and S&P 500 closed near their session highs. The Nasdaq surged 522.53 points or 2.1 percent to 25,820.14, the S&P 500 jumped 86.41 points or 1.2 percent to 7,440.43 and the Dow climbed 306.63 points or 0.6 percent to 52,182.74. Technology stocks helped lead the rally on Wall Street, with tech-heavy Nasdaq rebounding strongly after plunging by 4.6 percent last week. The strength in the sector came as shares of Alphabet (GOOGL) spiked by 4.8 percent following the Google parent's inclusion in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Within the tech sector, semiconductor stocks turned in some of the best performances, driving the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up by 3.8 percent. Substantial strength was also visible among networking and computer hardware stocks, with the NYSE Arca Networking Index surging by 3.7 percent and the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index jumping by 2.4 percent. Martin Marietta said Monday it expects to use a mix of $7 billion in cash along with shares of its stock valued at $6.5 billion to fund the deal, confirming an earlier report from The Wall Street Journal. The deal would be the largest ever for Raleigh, N.C.-based Martin Marietta, which has a market value of more than $36 billion.

Asia
On Tuesday, no clear trend has emerged so far on the stock markets in East Asia and Australia. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index is up 1.3 per cent. The broader Topix index has risen by 1 per cent.

Bonds
In the U.S. bond market, treasuries showed a lack of direction throughout the session before closing roughly flat. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, crept up by less than a basis point to 4.374 percent.

Analysis
Jefferies raises its target for Nestlé to CHF 84 (80) – Hold
Jefferies raises its target for Saint-Gobain to EUR 134.60 (127.50) – Buy
Barclays upgrades STMicro to Equal Weight (Underweight) – Target: EUR 65 (34)

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