Morning News

JetBlue and Spirit Airlines Call Off Merger Deal

By Nadine PEREIRA
Published on Mon, 04.Mar.2024

Topic of the day

JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines terminated their merger agreement, weeks after a judge ruled that the $3.8 billion deal would reduce competition and harm cost-conscious fliers. The airlines had appealed the judge’s January ruling, but some analysts said overturning it would probably be a long shot. JetBlue and Spirit said Monday that they had come to the decision that they probably couldn’t overcome the legal and regulatory hurdles. JetBlue Chief Executive Joanna Geraghty told employees Monday that the federal court ruling and the Justice Department’s continued opposition made the probability of prevailing soon extremely low. Spirit CEO Ted Christie also said the airlines concluded that regulatory obstacles would likely be insurmountable. The decision to pull the plug on the merger ends a nearly two-year saga. JetBlue had fought to win Spirit, the ultradiscount airline, from a rival suitor. When Spirit resisted, sticking to its plan to merge with Frontier Airlines, JetBlue launched a hostile bidding war that drove the deal price higher and succeeded in winning over Spirit investors in July of 2022.

Swiss stocks

After opening slightly below the flat line Monday morning, the Swiss market very nearly made it to positive territory around mid morning, but edged lower and eventually ended the day's session on a weak note. The benchmark SMI ended down 16.12 points or 0.14% at 11,477.80. The index touched a low of 11,424.79 and a high of 11,493.47 in the session. Kuehne & Nagel ended 2.5% down. Logitech International ended lower by about 1.6%. Nestle, Richemont, Lonza Group and Sika lost 0.4 to 0.6%. Holcim and Swisscom gained 0.98% and 0.64%, respectively. Swiss Re, ABB and Roche Holding posted modest gains. In the Mid Price Index, Meyer Burger Tech tanked 12.4%. Adecco ended lower by 2.6%. PSP Swiss Property, Avolta and Swatch Group lost 0.8 to 1%. Belimo Holding, VAT Group, Sandoz, ams OSRAM AG and Lindt & Spruengli gained 1.3 to 2%. Temenos Group, BKW, Flughafen Zurich, Temenos Group and Schindler Holding also closed higher. Data published by the Federal Statistical Office showed Swiss consumer price inflation weakened to the lowest level in more than two years in February, softening to 1.2% in the month, from 1.3% in January. However, the rate was slightly above economists' forecast of 1.1%. On a monthly basis, consumer prices posted an increase of 0.6% mainly reflecting rising housing rentals and air transport. Core consumer prices gained 0.7% on month, taking the annual growth to 1.1%.

International markets

Europe
European stocks closed lower on Monday after a somewhat choppy session, as investors were a bit reluctant to make significant moves ahead of a slew of key economic data, and the European Central Bank's policy announcement this week. Investors awaited cues from the U.K. spring budget, Powell's congressional testimony, and the European Central Bank's policy announcement. The pan European Stoxx 600 edged down 0.03%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 ended 0.55% down, and Germany's DAX drifted down 0.11%, while France's CAC 40 gained 0.28%. Switzerland's SMI ended lower by 0.14%. Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and Turkiye closed weak. Denmark, Greece, Netherlands and Russia ended higher, while Spain ended flat. In the UK market, Entain ended lower by about 7%. Ocado recovered after plunging more than 6%. St. James's Place ended more than 4% down. Anglo American Plc, Next, Whitbread, Croda International, Burberry Group, Mondi, Kingfisher, Schrodders and RS Group lost 2 to 3%. Endeavour Mining rallied nearly 4%. Melrose Industries, BT and Pearson gained 2 to 2.5%. In the German market, Daimler Truck Holding, Fresenius, Fresenius Medical Care, Zalando, Porsche, Vonovia and Puma lost 2 to 4%. Henkel ended lower by about 2% after the chemical and consumer goods company warned of slower sales growth this year. Covestro, BASF, Siemens Energy, Commerzbank, Adidas, Infineon and Brenntag also ended notably lower. MTU Aero Engines gained about 3%. Volkswagen, SAP, Qiagen, Siemens Healthineers and Munich RE advanced 1 to 1.8%.

United States
After a weak start and a subsequent long spell in negative territory, U.S. stocks briefly managed to turn positive in the final hour, but failed to find support and ended marginally down on Monday. The mood was cautious right through the day's session due to a lack of major U.S. economic data. Traders largely stayed on the sidelines ahead of a slew of key events this week. The major averages all ended in negative territory. The Dow ended down 97.55 points or 0.25 percent at 38,989.83. The S&P 500 settled with a loss of 6.13 points or 0.12 percent at 5,130.95, while the Nasdaq ended lower by 67.43 points or 0.41 percent at 16,207.51. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's congressional testimony will be in focus for clues about the outlook for interest rates. Powell is due to testify before the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday and the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday. On Tuesday, the Institute for Supply Management is due to release its report on service sector activity in the month of February. Tesla dropped more than 7 percent. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Target, Alphabet, Pfizer, Apple Inc., Nike and Merck lost 2 to 4 percent. Intel, Nvidia, IBM, Bank of America, Ford Motor, Qualcomm, eBay, Walt Disney, General Electric, Wells Fargo, Costco and Citigroup posted strong gains.

Asia
On Tuesday, the Asian stock markets were dominated by the Chinese government's new growth targets. At the National People's Congress, it was decided to aim for GDP growth of 5 per cent for the current year. According to Natixis, the announcement is in line with expectations, which offers "no room for surprise for the markets", says strategist Gary Ng. The Caixin Purchasing Managers' Index for the services sector provided no support. At 52.5 points in February, it was just below the January figure of 52.7 and also below the market expectation of 52.9.

Bonds
In the U.S. bond market, treasuries gave back ground after moving notably higher over the past few sessions. The yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, moved up to 4.222 percent.

Analysis
Citi raises Daimler Truck to EUR 50 (39.80) – Buy
Citi raises Saint Gobain to EUR 80 (72) – Buy
HSBC lowers the Kühne + Nagel target to CHF 225 (235) – Reduce

Produced by MBI Martin Brückner Infosource GmbH & Co. KG on behalf of Swissquote. All news is acquired with journalistic accuracy. No liability is assumed for delays or errors.

關注我們

贊助商
UEFA Europa LeagueUEFA Women’s EURO 2025Genève ServetteZSC Lions

小心風險

在外匯交易平台上交易槓桿產品,例如外匯,現貨金屬和差價合約,都會因槓桿效應而面臨重大的虧損風險,因而並不適合所有投資者。在開立瑞訊之交易帳戶前,請考慮個人經驗水平、投資目標、資產、收入和可承擔之風險水平。理論上,虧損是可以無上限,如果帳戶餘額低於所需保證金水平,您有可能被追加資金,因此您不應該以自己無法承受虧損的資金進行交易,即您不應借入資金或以個人或家庭生活所急需或必要的資金進行投機、投資或對沖。過去12 個月,76.32%的零售投資者在交易差價合約時出現虧損、在平倉時損失全部保證金或平倉後帳戶出現負值。您必須清楚了解外匯交易中所有相關風險,如果有任何疑問時,應及時向獨立財務顧問尋求建議。如需更多資料,包括槓桿的影響、保證金交易的操作以及交易對手和市場風險,請參閱我們的外匯和差價合約風險披揭露。本網頁之內容包含市場推廣訊息,內容並沒有提交亦沒有得到相關監管機構之批核。

AI 生成的內容

我們網站上的一些視覺內容是使用人工智慧 (AI) 應用程式產生和/或增強的。但是,所有內容都經過徹底的人工審查和核准,以確保其準確性、相關性,並符合我們使用者和客戶的需求。