Stock futures point to a mixed start
U.S. stock futures were mixed early Tuesday, following weakness in stocks in the previous session as the banking sector came under pressure and renewed fears of lockdown-related restrictions dented risk appetite.
By 5:40 a.m. ET, futures tied to the blue-chip Dow were down 19 points to 27,036. The S&P 500 futures added 5.02 points, or 0.15% to 3,280.12 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures rose 65.38 points, or 0.59% to 11,054.38.
The Dow dropped 509.72 points, or 1.84% yesterday to end the session at 27,147.70, while the S&P 500 shed 38.41 points, or 1.2%, to 3,281.06.
Fed boss to report to Congress on the coronavirus economy
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell starts two days of congressional testimony Tuesday. He and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will testify today before the House Financial Services Committee.
Powell will state that the path forward depends on controlling the coronavirus and on policy actions taken at all levels of government, according to his prepared remarks released on Monday.
“We remain committed to using our tools to do what we can, for as long as it takes, to ensure that the recovery will be as strong as possible, and to limit lasting damage to the economy,” he will tell the committee.
The Fed chief has said that more fiscal stimulus is likely to be needed to help the U.S. economy recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
China’s Global Times says Beijing unlikely to approve TikTok’s deal with Oracle
Chinese officials are unlikely to approve a deal that TikTok parent ByteDance agreed with Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) and Walmart (NYSE: WMT) over the future of the popular short-video app, the-backed Global Times said in an editorial published late Monday.
“It is clear that these articles (terms) extensively show Washington’s bullying style and hooligan logic. They hurt China’s national security, interests and dignity,” the newspaper said. “From the information provided by the U.S., the deal was unfair. It caters to the unreasonable demands of Washington. It’s hard for us to believe that Beijing will approve such an agreement.”
In an interview on Fox News yesterday, President Donald Trump said that under the proposed deal ByteDance will “have nothing to do” with TikTok’s U.S. operations, adding “and if they do, we just won’t make the deal.”
ByteDance said in a blog post earlier in the day that it would keep control of TikTok Global, the new proposed company that is to be located in United States.
Elon Musk says new Tesla-made EV cells are years away
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) shares tumbled in the pre-market trading session Tuesday after CEO Elon Musk wrote on Twitter that the company still faces significant shortages of battery cells from 2022 even with its cell suppliers going at maximum speed.
Musk made the announcement ahead of Tesla’s highly anticipated “Battery Day” event, which is set to kick off later today. According to Musk, the unveil at the event would affect long-term production especially of Semi, Cybertruck, and Roadster but “what announce will not reach serious high-volume production until 2022.”
The “Battery Day” event is expected to showcase innovations designed to keep the company’s lead in electric vehicles. As of this writing, Tesla stock was down 4.54% to $429.01 a share.
