Tom Fitzgerald, TD Cowen vice president of equity research, joins Morning Brief to discuss the proxy battle between Elliott Management and Southwest Airlines (LUV).

Fitzgerald explains that the proxy battle will "continue to add a lot of noise into the shares" for Southwest. He argues, "We're not really sure that a management change would add a lot of value here, especially given the good relations that Southwest management has with their employee base, which is not a given in this industry." He explains that Elliott's involvement could pose a risk for Southwest, causing employee morale to decrease.

He believes that the company's upcoming earnings will be "critical," and hopes that they will provide more information about some of the initiatives they discussed during Investor Day. "We think they have a lot more explaining to do and hopefully provide more meat on the bone to what we can expect in 2026," he adds.

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This post was written by Melanie Riehl