Weekly Market Update - 10 October 2022

Hong Kong Virgin Atlantic Route

Virgin Atlantic is pulling out of Hong Kong for good, ending a 30-year history in the city. The airline, which was due to restart flights to the city in March after postponing services during the depths of the Covid pandemic, blamed the withdrawal on increased flight times around Russian airspace. But it had separately said the route was declining in profitability, even before the pandemic. The news came just hours after United Airlines announced plans to resume flights to the city from January. In other airline news, Boeing orders are drying up in China, and Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has warned against lengthy delays to key Airbus orders.

Source: Bloomberg

Is It A Done Deal?

A judge has halted the court case against Elon Musk over his $44 billion purchase of Twitter, giving the parties until Oct. 28 to complete the deal. The ruling is a win for Musk, who asked the judge to pause Twitter’s lawsuit against him after proposing consummating the $54.20-per-share deal. Twitter had objected to the request to pause, saying Musk “can and should” close the deal next week. However, it’s not a done deal just yet. Talks between Musk and Twitter are now stuck in part over Musk’s statement that his offer is contingent on receiving $13 billion in debt financing. And all this talk about buying Twitter is nothing but a headache for Tesla.

Source: Bloomberg

Sweeping Regulations

Shares of semiconductor companies fell globally Monday, after the US imposed sweeping regulations that limit the sale of chips and chipmaking equipment to Chinese customers. The US measures — designed to stop China from developing technological capabilities it sees as a threat — include restrictions on the export of some types of chips used in artificial intelligence and supercomputing, and also tighter rules on the sale of semiconductor equipment to any Chinese company. China’s Foreign Ministry described the rules as “unfair” and said they would also hurt the interests of US companies.

Source: Bloomberg