Twitter Inc. on Monday accepted Elon Musk’s bid to take over the company, which would give the world’s richest man control over the social-media network where he is also among its most influential users. The $44 billion deal marks the close of a dramatic courtship and a change of heart at Twitter, where many executives and board members initially opposed Mr. Musk’s takeover approach. The deal has polarized Twitter employees, users and regulators over the power tech giants wield in determining the parameters of acceptable discourse on the internet and how those companies enforce their rules. The two sides worked through the night to hash out a deal in which Mr. Musk plans to take Twitter private. Earlier on Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported Twitter and Mr. Musk had reached an agreement on Twitter’s value. The takeover, if it goes through, would mark one of the biggest acquisitions in tech history and will likely have global repercussions for years to come, including possibly reshaping how billions of people use social media. Mr. Musk, who is also chief executive of Tesla Inc. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. will bring his commitment to a more hands-off approach to speech to a company that has struggled to reconcile freewheeling conversation with content that appeals to advertisers.

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The Swiss stock market fell sharply on Monday. The SMI lost 1.4 per cent to 12,085 points. Among the 20 SMI stocks, there were 15 price losers and five price winners. 43.05 million (previously: 39.26) shares were traded. Roche fell by 1.2 per cent after sales figures and thus held up better than the market. In trading, the figures were rated as good. The Diagnostics division in particular had performed even better despite the Corona pandemic slowly subsiding. However, Roche itself expects a strong decline in sales here. ABB had to cope with heavy losses of 4 per cent after LBBW downgraded the share to "hold" from "buy". The business climate in various market segments was already cooling down, said the analysts, who see the risk-reward profile as balanced despite the better earnings situation due to the uncertain outlook. Bucking the trend among cyclicals, Holcim ran up 1.5 percent. Credit Suisse and UBS both raised their price targets and left the stock at "Outperform" and "Buy", respectively.

European equity indices fell on Monday, fearing the impact of possible further confinements in China and central bank monetary tightening policies on the outlook for the global economy. The Stoxx Europe index lost 1.8% to 445.1 points. In Paris, the CAC 40 and the SBF 120 lost 2% and 1.9% respectively. In Frankfurt, the DAX 40 was down 1.5% and in London, the FTSE 100 was down 1.9%. Royal Philips NV on Monday reported a swing to a net loss for the first quarter of the year, though sales rose, beating forecasts. The Dutch health-technology company said it is implementing extra cost measures and increasing prices to offset inflationary headwinds. Still, it said its strong customer demand and order book, together with the first-quarter sales performance, support the targets that were guided for in January. Philips reported a net loss attributable to shareholders of 151 million euros ($163.1 million) for the quarter, compared with a net profit of EUR39 million a year earlier. Vivendi SE said Monday that revenue grew in its first quarter, including at its core media business. The French media group made quarterly revenue of 2.38 billion euros ($2.57 billion), an organic increase of 7.9% from EUR2.1 billion in the same period last year. The comparable result is adjusted for the results of Universal Music Group NV, which has been spun off and listed separately.

U.S. stocks flipped higher Monday as government-bond yields retreated and investors took the opportunity to scoop up shares of beaten-down technology and other growth stocks. The S&P 500 climbed 24.34 points, or 0.6%, to 4296.12 after dropping nearly 1.7% earlier in the session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 238.06 points, or 0.7%, to 34049.46. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index rose 165.56 points, or 1.3%, to 13004.85. Twitter shares rose 5.7% after the social-media company accepted Elon Musk's $44 billion takeover deal. Blackstone Inc. said it has reached a deal to buy PS Business Parks Inc. for about $7.6 billion, including debt, in a bet on suburban office space and business parks after the Covid-19 pandemic upended the commercial real-estate market. The deal is the latest by Blackstone on real estate across the U.S. as the pandemic shapes new norms. Last week, the private-equity firm agreed to buy student-housing owner American Campus Communities Inc. for about $12.8 billion, including debt, a bet on students’ return to campus. To find new growth, Boeing Co. needs its defense unit on offense. The aerospace giant’s defense business made profits of $1.5 billion last year as its jetliner unit lost $6.5 billion, and challenges persist with its 737 MAX and 787 Dreamliner commercial jet programs. Now, the plane maker has appointed a new head of its defense business to stabilize the unit after what industry officials and analysts said were recent missteps.

After the partly massive losses at the beginning of the week, there is a moderate recovery movement on the East Asian stock exchanges on Tuesday. Japan's Nikkei index is up 0.7 per cent to 26,785 points, while South Korea's Kospi is up 0.6 per cent. Slightly stronger than expected economic growth in the first quarter is helping. In Shanghai, which had fallen sharply by over 5 per cent the previous day, the market barometer rose by almost 1 per cent, while in Hong Kong the recovery was strongest at 1.8 per cent, led by even stronger gains in technology stocks. In Sydney (-1.9 per cent), on the other hand, there is a need to catch up after there was no trading there on Monday due to the public holiday.

Treasury yields edged higher in Asia after they fell sharply Monday, with investors cautiously shaking off recent weakness tied to China's expanded lockdowns.

Morgan Stanley raises Nestle target to CHF 137 (135) – Overweight

CS raises Holcim target to CHF 58 (55) – Outperform

UBS lowers SAP target to EUR 142 (152) – Outperform

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