Here are the most important news, trends and analysis that investors need to start their trading day:
1. Wall Street looks higher after breaking multiday win streaks
Traders on the floor of the NYSE, March 18, 2022.
Source: NYSE
2. Ukraine retakes Kyiv suburb; Biden says Putin ‘against the wall’
Service members of the Ukrainian armed forces are seen atop of a tank at their positions outside the settlement of Makariv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, near Zhytomyr, Ukraine March 4, 2022.
Maksim Levin | Reuters
Ukrainian forces said early Tuesday they retook a strategically important suburb of Kyiv. However, Russia continued to squeeze other areas near the capital and its attack on the embattled southern port of Mariupol raged on unabated. U.S. President Joe Biden, who’s heading to Europe later in the week to meet with allies, said Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “back is against the wall” and could resort to using chemical weapons. The White House also warned of potential cyberattacks, urging American companies to “immediately” harden their defenses.
3. Dow stocks: Nike earnings, Boeing crash probe, Disney walkouts
Dow stock Nike rose roughly 6% in Tuesday’s premarket, the morning after reporting fiscal third-quarter earnings and revenue that beat estimates. Nike cited robust demand in North America but opted not to provide forward guidance against a backdrop of uncertainties around inflation, Russia’s Ukraine war and clogged supply chains.
Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun told employees the aircraft maker offered the full support of its technical experts in the investigation of the crash of a China Eastern Airlines 737-800 with 132 people on board. The jet crashed in mountains in southern China early Monday. Boeing, a Dow stock, advanced modestly in premarket trading, one day after dropping 3.6%.
Dow stock Disney, down more than 6% in a month, was steady in the premarket ahead of a week of planned employee walkouts, starting Tuesday, in protest of CEO Bob Chapek’s delayed denunciation of Florida’s so-called Don’t Say Gay bill. Chapek said Monday that the company made a mistake by previously remaining silent on the legislation in the state home to Disney World.
4. Alibaba boosts its stock buyback program to $25 billion
The Alibaba Group logo is seen at Alibaba Xixi Campus on August 8, 2021 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province of China.
Shen Longquan | Visual China Group | Getty Images
Alibaba shares jumped 8% in U.S. premarket trading Tuesday after the Chinese e-commerce giant said it would increase the size of its share buyback program by 66% to $25 billion. Alibaba has repurchased about 56.2 million American depositary receipts, worth about $9.2 billion, under the previously announced buyback program. ADRs are shares listed in the U.S., and they act as proxies for foreign companies. Alibaba is looking to boost investor confidence as its stock has lost around two-thirds of its value since hitting an all-time high in October 2020.
5. Elon Musk to open Tesla’s long-delayed new Berlin factory
BERLIN, GERMANY – SEPTEMBER 02: Tesla head Elon Musk arrives at a retreat of the German Christian Democrats CDU/CSU Bundestag faction on September 02, 2020 in Berlin, Germany. Musk is currently in Germany where he met with vaccine maker CureVac, with which Tesla has a cooperation to build devices for producing RNA vaccines, yesterday. Today he is rumoured to also the site of the new Gigafactory under construction near Berlin.
Maja Hitij | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday is set to open the electric auto maker’s first manufacturing facility in Europe, cutting the ribbon at the Berlin factory. Tesla sees the plant producing up to 500,000 vehicles annually. A lengthy delay in licensing the facility meant Tesla had to service earlier European orders from its Shanghai factory, which increased logistics costs. Select clients on Tuesday will get Model Ys made in Berlin. Musk said new orders from the plant could be delivered as soon as next month.
— CNBC reports Arjun Kharpal, Sam Shead and Lauren Thomas as well as The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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