Stocks set to slide at open
U.S. stock futures fell early Wednesday, suggesting Wall Street would open lower, despite hopeful signs from a round of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia.
Russian and Ukrainian negotiators concluded the talks in Turkey on Tuesday, with both sides expressing cautious optimism.
The Russian government also said that it would be scaling back its military activities around Kyiv and Chernihiv and would instead focus its attention on areas closer to the Donbas region in Eastern Ukraine.
However, U.S. President Joe Biden said he was not convinced that Russia’s decision to cut military activities will result in a significant change in the war.
As of 5:05 a.m. ET, futures tied to the blue-chip Dow were indicated 116 points, or 0.33% lower to 35,074. S&P 500 futures fell 18.25 points, or 0.39% to 4,607.25 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 future shed 80 points, or 0.53% to 15,157.75.
Tesla mulling another stock split
Meanwhile, EV maker Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) is planning another stock split, which will require shareholder approval at a meeting later this year.
Tesla said in a new SEC filing at the start of the week that it would request shareholder approval “for an increase in the number of authorized shares of common stock” to enable a stock-split.
The Elon Musk-led company said the split would come in the form of a dividend, but did not indicate what the ratio of the shares would be or when the split would happen.
Tesla last split its stock in August 2020 in a move that saw its shareholders receive five shares for each share they own.
FTC files lawsuit accusing Intuit of deceiving consumers with ‘free’ TurboTax ads
In other news, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed a complaint against Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU) accusing it of deceptive marketing practices related to its TurboTax tax filing software.
In the suit filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the FTC accused Intuit of deceiving customers for years by claiming that TurboTax is a free product and forcing them to pay.
“TurboTax is bombarding consumers with ads for ‘free’ tax filing services, and then hitting them with charges when it’s time to file,” said FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, Samuel Levine.
The agency asked the court for an emergency motion to stop TurboTax advertisements.
