U.S. stock futures struggled for direction, as investors assessed whether the turmoil that had gripped parts of the global banking sector was abating.
Market Snapshot
At 8:20 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 17 points, or 0.05%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 0.75 points, or 0.02%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 5.25 points, or 0.04%.
Pre-Market Movers
Alibaba— Shares jumped 9.8% after the e-commerce giant said it wouldsplit its company into six separate business groups.Each will have the potential to raise outside funding and go public.
Lyft— The ride-sharing company added 5% after announcing its cofounders, CEO Logan Green and President John Zimmer, will soon step down from their day-to-day roles. Former Amazon executive David Risher willtake the helmApril 17.
First Republic Bank— The closely followed regional bank gained 3.6%. That follows an 11.8% rally in Monday’s session as investors bought back into the stock after selling off last week. Investors were contemplating if a$30 billion rescue plan from a group of bankswould be enough to shore up its liquidity.
Walgreens Boots Alliance— The pharmacy stock advanced 1.7% after the company posted better-than-expectedfiscal second-quarter results. Adjusted earnings per share came in at $1.16, above the $1.10 anticipated by analysts, per Refinitiv. Meanwhile, the company reported revenue at $34.86 billion, beating the $33.53 billion expected by Wall Street.
PVH— Shares of the apparel company jumped more than 12% following a better-than-expected fourth quarter report. PVH generated $2.38 in adjusted earnings per share on $2.49 billion of revenue. Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv were expecting $1.67 in earnings per share on $2.37 billion of revenue. Revenue from the Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein brands grew by 3% each, and PVH’s revenue guidance also topped expectations.
PagSeguro— Shares gained 5% after Citi upgraded the Brazilian payment stock to buy on the back of fourth-quarter earnings. While the firm said the earnings report was largely unsurprising and the company was still in “rough waters,” shares were more attractive following a bout of underperformance.
Ciena— The technology company added 3.1% following an upgrade to strong buy from outperform by Oppenheimer, which cited Ciena’s entry in the edge router market as a catalyst.
Occidental Petroleum— The energy stock jumped 1.9% in premarket after a regulatory filing showed Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway purchased an additional 3.7 million shares for $216 million on Monday and last Thursday. The move boosted the conglomerate’s stake in the oil giant to 23.5%.
Paramount— Shares of the legacy media giant advanced 5% on Tuesday morning on a rating upgrade fromBank of America from neutral to buy. The firm highlighted the company’s strong lineup of assets that could help Paramount value itself at a premium compared to the market in the event that the business is ever put up for sale.
Fox— Shares slipped more than 1% after Bank of America downgraded the media company to neutral from buy, saying there were no near-term catalysts to drive the stock price up.
Array Technologies— The renewable energy stock added 3.6% following an upgrade to buy from hold by Truist. While the firm said the company should see some weakness in the first quarter, it will be helped by domestic and international tailwinds later in the year.
Market News
Alibaba Splits Into Six Units That May Pursue Individual IPOs
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. plans to split its $220 billion business into six main units encompassing e-commerce, media and the cloud, each of which will explore fundraising or initial public offerings when the time is right.
Group Chief Executive Officer Daniel Zhang will head up the cloud intelligence division, a nod to the growing role that AI will play in the e-commerce leader’s portfolio in the long run. Former international retail chief Jiang Fan will head up the digital business unit, while longtime executive Trudy Dai takes up the main Taobao Tmall online shopping division. Its other divisions include local services such as meal delivery, the Cainiao logistics group and digital media and entertainment.
NIO's 3rd-Gen Swap Station Makes Real-Life Debut
NIO today gave its third-generation battery swap station its real-life debut in a test run, though it didn't go live as previously teased.
NIO's third-generation battery swap station, unveiled at the NIO Day 2022 event on December 24, 2022, is capable of storing up to 21 battery packs, up from 13 for its predecessor generation and 5 for the first generation of the facility.
The latest facility increases the daily service capacity of a single station to 408, a 30 percent increase over the second generation.
Google Asks Judge to Dismiss DOJ’s Digital Ad Antitrust Case
Alphabet Inc.’s Google asked a US judge to dismiss the government’s case against its dominance in the digital advertising market.
The move shows how hard Google plans to fight against the Justice Department’s lawsuit, which was filed earlier this year. The case, which is also backed by eight states, calls for breaking up Google’s ad-technology business, one of its main sources of revenue.
Nvidia Shows New Research on Using AI to Improve Chip Designs
Nvidia Corp, the world's leading designer of computer chips used in creating artificial intelligence, on Monday showed new research that explains how AI can be used to improve chip design.
The process of designing a chip involves deciding where to place tens of billions of tiny on-off switches called transistors on a piece of silicon to create working chips. The exact placement of those transistors has a big impact on the chip's cost, speed and power consumption.
Chip design engineers use complex design software from firms like Synopsys Inc and Cadence Design Systems Inc to help them optimize the placement of those transistors.
Berkshire Hathaway Stake in Occidental Petroleum Rises to 23.6%
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc boosted its ownership stake in Occidental Petroleum Corp to about 23.6% after buying nearly 3.7 million additional shares.
Berkshire disclosed the purchases, which cost about $216 million and occurred on March 23 and 27, in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Monday night.
Buffett's company began buying large quantities of Occidental stock just over one year ago, around when Russia invaded Ukraine, and has spent more than $1 billion on the stock this month.
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