Opposition to President Trump's potential Spirit Airlines bailout is mounting in Congress, and there are plenty of concerns among bondholders too.

🏛️ Lawmakers from both parties are questioning whether taxpayers should rescue a repeat-bankrupt airline with an uncertain path to profitability.

• "This is an absolutely TERRIBLE idea," Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said on X, adding, "the government doesn't know a damn thing about running a failed budget airline (that the Biden admin killed)."
• "Americans shouldn't be on the hook for another failing business as its competition thrives," Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) said.
• "What do the American people get out of this taxpayer bailout?" Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said.

Catch up quick: Spirit — which is teetering on the edge of liquidation — is in negotiations with the White House to obtain emergency financing, Spirit attorney Marshall Huebner confirmed today during a bankruptcy court hearing.

• The administration is weighing providing up to $500 million in financing in a deal that would provide the U.S. government with a massive ownership stake in the struggling budget carrier — possibly up to 90%.

💸 Spirit's creditors, meanwhile, are scrambling to understand how the deal would affect them.

• A lawyer representing a bondholder group said in court that they just received a term sheet for the proposed financing yesterday, per Bloomberg.
• While surging fuel costs blew up an earlier restructuring plan, bondholders were recently looking to recover what they could through liquidation. Now they want to know how the government's proposed financing could reshape who gets paid — and when — if Spirit experiences another hard landing.

The bottom line: Bailouts can prevent disaster for a time but can't change market conditions.

Meta told staff today that it plans to lay off roughly 8,000 people, or around 10% of the company, two sources confirmed, Axios' Sara Fischer writes.

• Why it matters: The cuts underscore how soaring AI costs are pressuring even the biggest tech companies to cut jobs to protect margins and reassure investors.

Zoom out: Meta's capital expenditures have ballooned in recent years, sparking investor concerns that excessive AI spending will eat into profits.

• In January, the company said it expects capex to soar by at least 60% this year compared with 2025, "driven by increased investment to support our Meta Superintelligence Labs efforts and core business."
• Free cash flow, meanwhile, is expected to plunge 83% year over year.

The big picture: Many Big Tech companies are eyeing layoffs as a way to appeal to investors in the AI era — Amazon, Block, Snap Inc. and Salesforce among them.

• The latest: Microsoft said today it would offer buyouts to 7% of staff.

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"At the end of the day, there's no way to view that as anything but anticompetitive, bad for customers, ultimately bad for American Airlines, bad for our team."

🌿 The Trump administration ordered the reclassification of FDA-approved and state-licensed marijuana as a less-dangerous drug, a move that would make it easier to study medicinal applications of marijuana. (Axios)

✂️ Nike announced a new round of layoffs, cutting 1,400 positions mainly in its technology department. (CNBC)

Luxury demand is taking a hit as geopolitical tensions rise, with LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault warning of a "pretty serious crisis in the Middle East."

Zoom in: Arnault, head of the world's largest luxury group, warned this morning that the Iran war's impact could spiral into a "world catastrophe," with severe economic consequences if it escalates, Axios' Kelly Tyko writes.

• Speaking at the company's annual shareholder meeting in Paris, Arnault said a return to growth this year depends on how the crisis unfolds, with improvement possible if tensions ease.

Zoom in: The conflict is already hitting LVMH's business.

• It shaved about 1 percentage point off growth in Q1 — roughly halving the pace, the company said.
• The Middle East accounts for only about 6% of sales but still had an outsized impact on results.
• Tourism slowed, weighing on luxury demand, particularly in fashion and leather goods.

The bottom line: Consumer spending pressures are building globally — adding to uncertainty around a luxury rebound.

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