Stock futures stage rally
U.S. stock futures are pointing to a strong open on Tuesday, as stocks attempt to recover from the massive losses witnessed in the past few sessions.
At around 6 a.m. ET, futures for the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 391 points, or 1.22% to 32,550. S&P 500 futures added 66.5 points, or 1.66% 4,071.25 and Nasdaq futures surged 268 points, or 2.19% to 12,513.5.
It’s a busy day for corporate earnings, with Home Depot (NYSE: HD) and Walmart (NYSE: WMT) scheduled to report ahead of the opening bell.
Other major earnings to watch today include JD.com (NASDAQ: JD), Palatin Technologies (NYSEAMEX:PTN), and AerCap (NYSE: AER).
Elon Musk says Twitter deal “cannot move forward” without more details about bot accounts
Twitter shares were tumbling again in premarket hours on Tuesday after Elon Musk announced that his agreed $44 billion acquisition of the social media platform cannot procced until the company proves that fewer than 5% of its users are fake or bot accounts.
“My offer was based on Twitter’s SEC filings being accurate. Yesterday, Twitter’s CEO publicly refused to show proof of <5%. This deal cannot move forward until he does,” the tech billionaire tweeted.
Musk, without citing a source, claimed that around 20% of the accounts on Twitter are fake or bots, and suggested that the filings the company submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) were misleading.
The Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO has offered to acquire Twitter and its roughly 226 million monetizable daily active users for about $44 billion.
Some analysts have speculated that Musk is likely using the bots issue as an excuse to step away from the deal or negotiate a lower price.
“We believe that Musk is using his investigation into the % of fake TWTR accounts as an excuse to pay below $54.20/share. In reality, the NASDAQ COMP is down 25% YTD [year-to-date] and Elon Musk realizes that he may be overpaying for the asset,” Jefferies analysts Brent Thill and James Heaney said in note, according to CNBC.
Twitter shares fell 2.46% to $36.47 each in the premarket trading session.
Warren Buffett buys $7.74 billion stake in Occidental
Meanwhile, legendary trader Warren Buffett Monday disclosed that his conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.B) bought 136.4 million shares of oil and gas exploration company Occidental (NYSE: OXY).
The move means the conglomerate now owns a stake of more than 15% of Occidental’s stock.
Shares of Occidental were marked $1.78, or 2.63% higher to $69.50 apiece in the premarket trading session on Tuesday.
Monday’s filing also disclosed new stakes in Celanese (NYSE: CE), Citigroup (NYSE: C), McKesson (NYSE: MCK), Markel (NYSE: MKL), Ally Financial (NYSE: ALLY), and Paramount Global (NASDAQ: PARA).