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.

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%.

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%.

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.

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.

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.

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

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