Futures point to gains
U.S. stock futures were trading slightly higher on Monday morning as Wall Street tries to extend last week’s gains. Traders are watching shares of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) whose stock splits will kick in today after setting new record highs.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average will also get a new look today after the blue-chip index announced the addition of Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), Honeywell (NYSE: HON), and Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN).
As of 5:40 a.m. ET, futures tied to the Dow were up 74 points, or 0.26% to 28,685. The S&P 500 futures added 10.12 points, or 0.29% to 3,514.62 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures rose 41 points, or 0.34% to 12,032.75.
Warren Buffett acquires stake in Japanese trading companies
Warren Buffett’s conglomerate has bought stakes in five major Japanese companies worth around $6.7 billion based on the companies’ share prices Monday.
In a regulatory filing on Sunday, Berkshire Hathaway said it has Marubeni Corp, Mitsubishi Corp, Mitsui & Co, Itochu Corp, and Sumitomo Corp over approximately 12 months.
The Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate added it plans to hold the investments for the long term, and may increase its stakes to 9.9%.
The five companies are known as “sogo shosha,” and they play an important role in the Japanese economy, dealing in an array of industries, including manufacturing, energy, and technology.
“I am delighted to have Berkshire Hathaway participate in the future of Japan and the five companies we have chosen for investment. I hope that in the future there may be opportunities of mutual benefit,” Buffett said in a statement.
New rules in China complicate sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations
In other news, China has updated its list of technologies subject to export restrictions to include a number of areas like artificial intelligence, voice recognition, chip design, and recommendation algorithms.
The new rules, which were published on Friday, mean TikTok-owner ByteDance would need to get Beijing approval before selling the popular video-sharing app over to any foreign company.
ByteDance says it will now abide by the rules according to CNBC, making any potential sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations a bit more complicated for American suitors Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT)
