London View

S&P Hits Record High and Moves Closer to Elusive 2k Level, Ryanair in Takeover Talks Regarding Cyprus Airways

US Indices have recovered after dipping at the start of the month, after a strong earnings season and positive earnings boosted the markets. The S&P 500  closed at an all time high of 1992.37 yesterday while the Dow has also moved back above the 17,000 level, closing at 17, 039.49.

Bank of America has agreed to pay a record $16.7 billion fine to the DoJ and six different US States for mis-selling mortgage securities. The Bank has already paid well over $50 billion in the last few years over mortgage misdealing and bad bond deals. BoA stock rose after the announcement  of the settlement, closing up by 4.12% at 16.16.

Ryanair has confirmed its interest in a possible takeover of Cyprus Airways, despite Ryanair CEO Ryan O’Leary originally stating that he was ‘not particularly interested’ in such a move. The struggling Cypriot Carrier currently flies around 600,000 people a year; Mr O’Leary says that his company would be able to boost that to 3 million. The Telegraph is reporting that purchasing Cyprus Airways may be the price Ryanair has to pay for access to a boosted AOC (Air Operators Certificate), which would open up access via Cyprus to Russian and Middle Eastern markets for the Dublin-based airline.

The DAX is currently down by around 0.20% and the CAC is down by 0.4%, with no economic data releases for the markets to focus on. However, attention will be on the Jackson Economic Symposium in the US, which started yesterday. Both Janet Yellen and Mario Draghi are due to give speeches at the symposium later today, which will be followed by press conferences. Yellen is due to speak at 15:00 BST, whilst Draghi’s speech will be at 19:30 BST.