Dave Calhoun stepped in to address a crisis at Boeing. He is stepping aside four years later with the manufacturer still mired in a crisis over the quality of its planes. The Boeing chief executive will exit at the end of the year, part of a broader executive shake-up after a Jan. 5 midair blowout and sweeping production problems that have angered airlines and regulators. The aircraft maker also said the head of its commercial-aircraft business, Stanley Deal, will step aside immediately and its chairman, Larry Kellner, won’t stand for re-election. Steve Mollenkopf, a former CEO of Qualcomm, will take over as board chair and lead the search for the next Boeing boss. Boeing has been under pressure from investors and airline operators since the door-panel blowout on an Alaska Airlines flight to spell out a plan for fixing the company’s quality problems. A group of airline CEOs had recently requested meetings with Boeing’s board, an unusual move showing their dissatisfaction with the company and Calhoun. Boeing stock, which has tumbled more than 25% so far this year, added 1.3% in Monday trading. The shares were trading above $330 when Calhoun took over as CEO and were recently trading around $191.

The Swiss stock market ended Monday's trading session virtually flat. The SMI lost 0.1 per cent to 11,637 points. Among the 20 SMI stocks, there were eleven losers and nine gainers. A total of 18.63 (previously: 18.52) million shares were traded. Traders reported quiet trading due to the upcoming public holidays and the Easter break. The stock exchange will be closed on Good Friday and Easter Monday. Investors took profits in individual shares that had recently performed well. This applied to Lonza shares (-0.7%), among others, which have risen by almost 50 per cent since the beginning of the year. The SMI was supported by the heavily weighted Nestle share, closing 0.4 per cent higher. Sonova fell by 2.1 per cent. The analysts at UBS had lowered their earnings estimates and reiterated their sell recommendation for Sonova shares. ABB (-2.3 per cent or -1 CHF) and Givaudan (-1 per cent or -39 CHF) were visually under increased pressure. However, the two stocks traded at ex-dividend discounts of CHF 0.87 and CHF 68 respectively. UBS (+1.4%) shares benefited slightly from rising market interest rates. After Friday's strong stock market debut, Galderma shares were little changed.

European stocks mostly drifted sideways on Monday as traders continued to assess the outlook for interest rates and inflation. The Stoxx Europe 600 index closed slightly up by 0.04% at 509.9 points. In Paris, the CAC 40 and SBF 120 ended flat. In Frankfurt, the DAX 40 gained 0.3%, while in London the FTSE 100 shed 0.2%. Atos (-2.9%) fell back despite an initial rebound. In an interview with Le Figaro published on Sunday, the representative of Onepoint, the digital services group's main shareholder, presented a recovery plan that would rule out any plans to sell off the company. Atos has "taken note" of these comments and will publish its annual results on Tuesday. Danone (-0.4%) announced that it had obtained regulatory approval in Russia for the sale of its dairy and plant-based products (PBP) business in the country to Tatarstan-based dairy specialist Vamin R LLC. European aerospace and defence group Airbus (+0.1%) has reached an agreement to acquire German group Infodas, specialising in IT and cybersecurity solutions for the public sector. The amount of the transaction was not disclosed. Danish pharmaceuticals group Novo Nordisk (+1.2% in Copenhagen) announced on Monday that it would pay up to €1.02 billion to acquire Cardior Pharmaceuticals, a German biotech developing RNA-based therapies for heart disease.

Stocks pulled back Monday, a second straight daily retreat since investors excited by the potential for lower interest rates pushed U.S. indexes to record highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average led the way lower, declining 0.4%, or 162 points. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite each fell about 0.3%. The current round of quarterly earnings is winding down. Spice maker McCormick and day-trader favorite GameStop are scheduled to report earnings Tuesday. Results from cruise operator Carnival and payroll firm Paychex are due Wednesday, while pharmacy giant Walgreens Boots Alliance is set for Thursday. Equity and bond markets are closed Friday in observance of Good Friday. In individual stocks, Super Micro Computer remained the hottest stock in the S&P 500, rising 7.2% Monday to bring its year-to-date gain to 267%. Micron Technology gained 6.3% to close at a record. It was the seventh straight daily gain for the memory-chip company, which last week gave a rosier outlook than analysts had expected, due to artificial-intelligence server demand rippling through the market for data storage. Videogame maker Take-Two Interactive Software led the S&P 500 lower, falling 4.1% following a trade publication’s report that the latest installment of its blockbuster Grand Theft Auto series may be delayed. United Airlines lost 3.4% after the Federal Aviation Administration said it would increase oversight of the carrier following a string of safety issues. United faces potential restrictions on new routes and the use of new planes, The Wall Street Journal reported. In commodity markets, cocoa futures continued to surge into uncharted territory. Chocolate’s key ingredient rose 7.9% on Monday to settle at $9,649 a metric ton in New York. At $710 a metric ton, the daily gain was the largest ever. Shares of Hershey and snack-maker Mondelez International shed 2.9% and 2.1%, respectively.

Following a weaker trend from Wall Street on Monday, stocks in Asia mostly fell on Tuesday. The outlier on the upside was Seoul, where the Kospi rose by 0.8 per cent. Shares from the semiconductor sector such as SK Hynix (+4.8 per cent) and Hanmi Semiconductor (+18.9 per cent) are in greater demand there. The index heavyweight Samsung Electronics gained 1.8 per cent. Among the bigger winners, as seen recently in Europe, are shares from the defence sector in view of global efforts to increase military spending. Hanwha Aerospace increased by 5.2 per cent and LIG Nex1 by 2.6 per cent. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index is treading water at 40,415 points. The Chinese stock exchanges are just in the red. China Merchants Bank rose by 4.7 per cent in the wake of business figures that were largely in line with expectations.

U.S. Treasury yields ticked higher, ending a four-day slide.The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield rose by 3 basis points to 4.249%. The 2-year Treasury note yield climbed 3 basis points to 4.630%.

Jefferies upgrades Lonza target to CHF 647 (637) - Buy
Target price Sonova: JP Morgan raises target to CHF 255 (244) - Neutral
Target price Julius Baer: Royal Bank of Canada lifts target to 60 (56) CHF - Outperform

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