Southwest changes policy on support animals
Joining several other carriers that have adopted tough new rules on pets, Southwest Airlines is adopting a new policy for emotional support animals in the cabin, allowing only dogs and cats that are restrained by a leash or kept in a carrier.
The new policy, announced Tuesday by the Dallas-based carrier, also limits each passenger to one emotional-support animal. As for service animals that are trained to assist travelers with physical disabilities, the airline will accept dogs, cats and miniature horses. The policy takes effect Sept. 17.
“We want to make sure our guidelines are clear and easy to understand while providing customers and employees a comfortable and safe experience,” said Steve Goldberg, senior vice president of operations and hospitality at the airline.
The move by Southwest Airlines comes after several airlines, including Alaska, Delta and United, adopted stricter rules on pets brought aboard planes.
The U.S. Department of Transportation announced in May that it wouldn’t take action against airlines that impose restrictions on passengers traveling with emotional-support animals. That announcement was significant because the Air Carrier Access Act requires airlines to allow passengers who believe they need the emotional support of an animal to bring the animal on a commercial flight without paying an extra charge.
But airline officials and psychologists say they believe many travelers who do not have an emotional or physical disability are using the law to transport their pets free of charge.
The new Southwest Airlines policy requires passengers traveling with emotional support animals to present a letter from a medical doctor or a licensed mental health professional, attesting that the passenger must fly with the animal.
U.S. stocks had their worst day in seven weeks Wednesday amid a broad decline in global equities as technology shares were roiled by disappointing results from Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. and copper sank into a bear market, weighing on commodities. Crude oil slipped below $65 a barrel following a report that American stockpiles rose the most since March 2017.
The S&P 500 index declined for the fifth time in six sessions, while the Nasdaq 100 index posted the weakest performance among major U.S. benchmarks. Strong retail sales figures did little to mollify investors, as Macy’s Inc. plummeted 16 percent, the most since May 2017, despite beating expectations. Tencent’s first profit decline in at least a decade also rattled emerging-market equities.
“Tech stocks are pulling the markets lower,” said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at TF Global Markets U.K. in London. “We are seeing investors becoming more concerned about the geopolitics.”
Tesla Inc. dropped more than 2.5 percent after a report that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sent a subpoena to the company regarding Elon Musk’s privatization plans and his comments about having secured funding.
Raw-materials producers dragged down European shares as copper and zinc sank to the lowest in more than a year. In Turkey, the lira gained after the country’s banking regulator moved to deter short-selling in the currency. While the nation’s assets stabilized, other emerging-market currencies continued to buckle as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan intensified a diplomatic feud with U.S. President Donald Trump by issuing a series of new import tariffs.
With the bull market in American stocks just a week away from becoming the longest in history, investors have turned increasingly cautious amid lingering global trade tensions. Markets have been rocked over the past week as turmoil in Turkey weighed on sentiment across many emerging- and developed-nation assets. Qatar promised Wednesday to invest $15 billion in the Turkish economy to help the country avert a financial crisis.
Elsewhere, Hong Kong intervened to defend its peg to the dollar for the first time in three months after the local currency fell to the weak end of its trading band. Several markets, including Poland and India, were closed for a holiday.
Here are some key events coming up this week:
■ Earnings are due this week from companies including Maersk, Cisco, Walmart and Carlsberg.
■ Brexit talks between the EU and the U.K. resume in Brussels today.
These are the main moves in markets:
■ The S&P 500 slumped 0.8 percent to 2,818.39, the biggest decline since June, and the Nasdaq 100 dropped 1.2 percent.
■ The Stoxx Europe 600 index decreased 1.4 percent to the lowest in more than a month.
■ The MSCI All-Country World index dipped 1.1 percent to the lowest in five weeks.
■ The MSCI Emerging Market index fell 1.8 percent, reaching the lowest since July 2017.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot index rose 0.2 percent to the highest since June 2017.
■ The euro was little changed at 1.1345.
■ The Japanese yen climbed 0.4 percent to 110.68 per dollar.
■ The Turkish lira surged 7.5 percent to 5.9101 per dollar.
■ South Africa’s rand plunged 2.5 percent to 14.597 per dollar, the weakest since September 2016.
■ The MSCI Emerging Markets Currency index fell 0.6 percent to the lowest since May 2017.