Pre-Bell | U.S. Index Futures Swing; Chinese EV ADRs Jump

U.S. index futures swung between gains and losses on Wednesday as investors turned cautious ahead of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's congressional testimony, while Tesla gained as Texas requires charging stations to include its plug.

Market Snapshot

At 8:20 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 13 points, or 0.04%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 3 points, or 0.07%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 24 points, or 0.16%.

Pre-Market Movers

$NIO(NIO)$, $XPeng(XPEV)$, $Li Auto(LI)$ — Chinese EV ADRs jumped in premarket trading. NIO, XPeng, and Li Auto rose between 2% and 3%. China extended tax breaks for consumers buying clean cars through 2027, estimated to be worth 520 billion yuan ($72.3 billion) in the coming four years, in an effort to bolster its flagging electric-vehicle industry.

$FedEx(FDX)$ — Shares slipped 2.9% after the shipping giant reported quarterly results. The company notched an earning beat with an adjusted $4.94 per share against a Refinitiv consensus estimate of $4.89 per share. However, revenue came in below expectations at $21.93 billion. FedEx executives also provided roughly flat revenue guidance, and said chief financial officer Mike Lenz would retire on July 31.

$Coinbase(COIN)$, $Riot Platforms(RIOT)$ — The crypto exchange stock climbed nearly 3% in premarket trading, seemingly aided by the surge in bitcoin’s 7.8% climb, while crypto mining firm Riot added 3.4%. Coinbase has faced a multiple headwinds recently, from an ongoing spat with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to BlackRock’s launch of its own bitcoin exchange-traded fund.

$MicroStrategy(MSTR)$ — The cloud services firm with exposure to bitcoin added 2.9% in premarket trading, following other names higher. Shares have climbed more than 121% so far in 2023 and 8.7% over the past month.

$Tesla(TSLA)$ — Shares of the electric vehicle giant added 1.2% even after a downgrade from Barclays to equal weight from overweight. The bank warned investors that it may be prudent to “to move to the sidelines” after its recent rally. Tesla shares are up more than 52% over the past month.

$Spotify(SPOT)$ — Shares of the music streaming service rose about 2% in premarket trading after Wolfe Research upgraded Spotify to outperform from peer perform. Price increases and growth in advertising should help Spotify grow its revenue, according to Wolfe.

$Rivian(RIVN)$ — The EV maker climbed 1.6% premarket. A day earlier, the company announced that its customers would have access to Tesla’s network of charging stations starting next year.

$Exact Sciences(EXAS)$ — Shares added 6% on news of research agreements with The MIT and Harvard Broad Institute to exclusively use the company’s molecular residual disease diagnostic testing platform.

Market News

EV Maker Rivian to Adopt Tesla's Charging Standard

Electric vehicle maker $Rivian(RIVN)$ said it has agreed to adopt $Tesla(TSLA)$'s charging standard, giving customers access to the biggest U.S. charging network and adding momentum to Tesla's bid to set the industry standard.

Customers of Rivian, which has its own small network of fast chargers, will be able to access 12,000 Tesla Superchargers with adapters in the United States and Canada as early as spring 2024, the Irvine, California-based company said. Rivian also said it would make a Tesla-style charging port standard on its vehicles, starting in 2025.

Tesla has struck comparable deals in recent weeks with $General Motors(GM)$ and $Ford(F)$. While other automakers get access to Tesla's charging network, Tesla stands to profit from selling power to a bigger group of electric vehicle drivers.

Raymond James Downgrades Palantir After a Massive Rally

Raymond James analysts downgraded $Palantir Technologies Inc(PLTR)$ to Outperform from Strong Buy after shares more than doubled in value since early May.

The rally was fueled by the launch of Palantir’s AI platform (AIP) with the current valuation reflecting “a material element of our near term bullishness,” they said in a client note.

“The recent run in shares coupled with a premium valuation make finding a catalyst more challenging in the near term while our LT enthusiasm for AI and Palantir‘s positioning support our Outperform rating,” they added.

AMD to Invest up to $135M to Expand Operations in Ireland

$Advanced Micro Devices(AMD)$ will invest up to $135M over four years to expand adaptive computing research, development and engineering operations in Ireland.

The investment aims to fund strategic R&D projects via the adding up to 290 skilled engineering and research positions, plus support roles.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based tech giant said the investment is supported by the Irish government through IDA Ireland.

Singapore Fines DBS, Citi for Breaches in Wirecard Scandal

Singapore’s financial regulator imposed penalties amounting to a total of S$3.8 million ($2.8 million) on four financial institutions for breaches related to the Wirecard AG scandal. 

$DBS Group Holdings Ltd.(D05.SI)$, $Citigroup Inc.(C)$, $Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp(O39.SI)$. and Swiss Life Holding AG were found to have inadequate money laundering and terrorism financing controls in place when they dealt with parties linked to Wirecard, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said in a statement on Wednesday. 

The penalties amount to S$400,000 on Citibank, S$600,000 on OCBC, S$200,000 on Swiss Life (Singapore), with the heftiest fine of S$2.6 million imposed on DBS, according to the statement.