US stock futures tracking the Dow outshone peers on Tuesday on robust results from UnitedHealth, while elevated Treasury yields amid heightened tensions in the Middle East kept a lid on gains.
Market Snapshot
At 8:20 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 238 points, or 0.63%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 11.5 points, or 0.23%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 25.5 points, or 0.14%.
Pre-Market Movers
UnitedHealth Group reported first-quarter adjusted earnings of $6.91 a share, topping analysts’ estimates of $6.61. Revenue of $99.8 billion beat forecasts of $99.2 billion. UnitedHealth reported a net loss of $1.53 a share in the quarter which included an impact of 74 cents a share from the hack of the payments tools operated by its subsidiary Change Healthcare. The stock was rising 7.3%.
U.S.-listed shares of Ericsson rose 7.75% after the Swedish telecommunications company reported that first-quarter net income rose 66% as it boosted profit margins to 42.7% from 39.8% a year earlier, aided by layoffs and cost cuts.
Tesla declined 2.3% in premarket trading. Shares of the electric-vehicle maker dropped 5.6% on Monday after CEO Elon Musk said Tesla was planning to lay off more than 10% of its global workforce, and Drew Baglino, Tesla’s head of powertrain and energy engineering, announced he was stepping down.
Bank of America earned 83 cents a share on an adjusted basis in the first quarter, beating analysts’ estimates of 76 cents. Revenue fell to $25.8 billion from $26.2 billion a year earlier but topped consensus of $25.5 billion. Net interest income in the period fell 3% to $14.03 billion. Shares were up 0.2%.
Shares of Morgan Stanley were up 3% after the investment bank’s earnings topped Wall Street expectations. The bank reported a return on tangible common equity, the closely watched measure of profitability known as ROTCE, of 19.7%, up from 16.9% a year earlier and closer to Morgan Stanley management’s own target of 20%.
$Live Nation(LYV) declined 9.8% following a report from The Wall Street Journal that said the Justice Department was preparing to sue the parent of Ticketmaster, alleging the company has leveraged its dominance for ticketing live events that has undermined competition. The suit could be filed as soon as next month, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Trump Media & Technology Group was up 3.04% in premarket trading after falling 18% on Monday after the parent company of the Truth Social platform filed for the sale of a large amount of shares. On Tuesday, the company announced plans to launch a new live TV streaming network.
Johnson & Johnson posted first-quarter adjusted earnings of $2.71 a share, better than Wall Street expectations. The company said it now expects full-year adjusted earnings in a range of $10.57 to $10.72 a share, compared with a previous range of $10.55 to $10.75. The stock was falling 0.2%.
Market News
Tesla's Global Job Cuts Include Leading Markets US, China
Tesla's global job cuts include reducing staff in the U.S. and China, the automakers' two biggest markets, across sales, tech, and engineering, five sources briefed on the matter said.
Several U.S.-based service centres saw heavy layoffs effective immediately, primarily of sales staff and technicians, one source said. Another location laid off all front-of-house staff, the source said.
Cathie Wood's Ark Invest Continues To Shed Coinbase, Nvidia Shares
Ark Invest decided to offload 3,689 shares of Coinbase from its ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) fund. The value of the sold COIN shares, based on the closing price of $223.41 on Monday, amounts to approximately $824,000.
Ark Invest also reduced its stake in NVIDIA Corp. from its ARK Genomic Revolution ETF (ARKG) fund by 157 units. The value of the sold Nvidia shares, based on the closing price of $860.01 on Monday, is approximately $135,000.
Intel to Launch Two AI Chips for China With Reduced Capabilities
Intel will release two AI chips with reduced capabilities for the Chinese market, in order to comply with U.S. export controls and sanctions.
The two chips, HL-328 and HL-388, are scheduled for launch in June and September, respectively, according to a white paper on the company's website dated April 12.
Baidu Says AI Chatbot "Ernie Bot" Has Attracted 200 Million Users
China's Baidu said on Tuesday its artificial intelligence chatbot “Ernie Bot” has garnered more than 200 million users as it seeks to remain China’s most popular ChatGPT-like chatbot amid increasingly fierce competition.
The number of users has roughly doubled since the company's last update in December. The chatbot was released to the public eight months ago.
Baidu CEO Robin Li also said Ernie Bot's application programming interface (API) is being used 200 million times everyday, meaning the chatbot was requested by its user to conduct tasks that many times a day.
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