Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) said Monday that it was buying the remaining interest in RF360 Holdings Singapore Pte. Ltd., which makes RF frong-end filters. RF360 is a joint venture with Tokyo-based TDK Corp. (6762.TO), with TDK's remaining interest valued at $1.15 billion in August. Qualcomm's stock slipped 0.9% in premarket trading. Qualcomm said the total purchase price, including the initial investment, payments to TDK and development obligations will be about $3.1 billion. Qualcomm said the acquisition strengthens its RF business and helps support the transition to 5G. "Our goal in the formation of this joint venture was to enhance Qualcomm Technologies' front-end solutions to enable us to deliver a truly complete solution to the mobile device ecosystem, and we have done exactly that," said Qualcomm President Cristiano Amon. Qualcomm's stock has soared 37.8% year to date through Friday, while the S&P 500 has gained 20.0%.

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The SMI closed down 0.8 percent on 9,969 points Monday, with all 20 stocks lower, pulled down with other European markets by surging oil prices after weekend attacks on two Saudi Arabian oil refineries disrupted oil supplies there. Defensive stock Roche slid 0.1 percent despite receiving approval for a laboratory solution in the US. China-reliant luxury goods makers Swatch and Richemont were hardest hit, falling 2.1 percent and 1.8 percent, as disappointing economic data out of China added to their woes. Second-tier stock AMS slumped 2.4 percent on receiving the green light from German lighting technology company Osram for its takeover. Osram noted considerable reservations about AMS’ business concept, saying a rival concept was “more viable overall”. Most employee representatives on the supervisory board rejected the offer. AMS has reduced the minimum acceptance level for the offer to 62.5 percent from 70 percent, denying claims of overstretching itself financially with the takeover.

European markets settled broadly lower as jitters about how the attacks on Saudi Arabia oil installations could affect the global economy eclipse gains for oil company shares. The FTSE 100 Index fell about 0.6%, or 46 points, at 7321 while the pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 dropped 0.6% and the DAX finished down 0.7% and CAC-40 0.9% lower. Shares in airlines fall as investors ponder the prospect of higher fuel prices, while miners and financial stocks also decline. Shares in oil majors and oil-industry equipment and service suppliers, such as BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Total, Eni, John Wood Group and Subsea 7, dominate the risers as the prices of Brent crude and U.S. light crude surge more than 10%. Airbus is one of the biggest losers in Europe at the start of the week, after shares in the plane maker were trading down as much as 4% on Monday. According to Jefferies, the drop follows a report in political magazine Politico, which said that the World Trade Organization had granted the U.S. the right to impose punitive tariffs on European companies such as Airbus that had received subsidies.

U.S. stocks fell and haven assets like gold and the Japanese yen gained after a weekend attack on Saudi Arabian oil facilities sent crude prices surging. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 140 points, or 0.5%. The S&P 500 lost 0.4%, with 10 of the 11 sectors in the index in the red. The energy sector was the lone gainer, up 2.3%. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.4%. Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, rose 14% to $68.48 a barrel. It had earlier jumped as much as 19.5% to $71.95 a barrel, but retraced some of those gains after initial concerns over how badly oil output would be affected ebbed on Saudi vows to restart production. U.S. oil futures rose 13% to $62.23 a barrel. The rise came after attacks on Saudi oil production facilities Saturday, which knocked out 5.7 million barrels of daily production. The kingdom is racing to restore roughly one-third of the disrupted production by day's end Monday. On Sunday, President Trump said he authorized the release of oil, if needed, from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help offset cost increases. The U.S. holds about 600 million barrels of emergency crude products, said Oswald Clint, a senior analyst for Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. The last time U.S. crude futures gained at least 10% in a day while all three major U.S. indexes slumped was in the depths of the financial crisis on Feb. 19, 2009, according to Dow Jones Market Data. U.S. energy companies saw benefits from the supply disruption, with Devon Energy up 7.2%, Marathon Oil rising 8.5% and Hess up 8.1%. Meanwhile, shares of airlines slumped as investors fretted over what the potential impact of higher fuel prices could mean for airline profits. Shares of American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines shed at least 2.6% apiece.

Asian markets fell in early trading Tuesday. Japanese stocks were recently down as falls in electronics, chemical and airline stocks outweighed gains in energy companies after a surge in crude oil prices. Investors and traders are focused on U.S. and Japanese central bank meetings later this week as a surge in crude prices casts a cloud over the global economy.

U.S. government bonds that offer investors protection against inflation rallied intraday, powered by concerns that a surge in oil prices would raise consumer prices after an attack on the heart of Saudi Arab's oil industry. The yield on 10-year Treasury inflation-protected securities, or TIPS, fell to 0.159% from 0.227% Friday, according to Tradeweb. Bond yields fall when prices rise.

UBS lowers HP to Neutral (Buy) – Target 20 (26) USD
CS rises Safran to Neutral (Underperform) – Target 136 (100) EUR
UBS rises EssilorLuxottica to Buy (Neutral) – Target 145 (110) EUR

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