Stock Market Today Mid-Morning Updates
On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up by over 180 points. Today’s gains are a relief after coming off its fifth-straight negative week for the first time in nearly three years and are almost 11% below its all-time high in January. Also, Russian and Ukrainian officials held their fourth round of peace talks on Monday. One of Ukraine’s advisors says that discussions were ongoing but ‘hard. He also indicates that Kyiv’s objectives were to secure a cease-fire and withdrawal of Russian troops from the country.
Today, Chinese stocks are down as Shenzhen goes into lockdown. Tech stocks like Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) are down by over 8% on today’s opening bell. Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com (NASDAQ: JD) is also down by over 10%. Furthermore, this comes after U.S. officials say that Russia has asked China for military equipment to use in its invasion of Ukraine, heightening tensions about the ongoing war before a meeting between senior U.S. and Chinese officials in Rome.
Among the Dow Jones leaders, shares of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) are down by 1.23% today while Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is up by 1.21%. Meanwhile, 3M (NYSE: MMM) and Nike (NYSE: NKE) are trading mixed on Monday. Among the Dow financial leaders, Visa (NYSE: V) is up by 2.84% while Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) is down by 0.12%.
Shares of EV leader Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) are down by 1.32% on Monday. Rival EV companies like Rivian (NASDAQ: RIVN) are also down by 6.52%. Lucid Group (NASDAQ: LCID) is also down by 1.83% today. Chinese EV leaders like Nio (NYSE: NIO) and Xpeng Motors (NYSE: XPEV) opened lower today as well.
Dow Jones Today: February’s Consumer Price Index Higher Than Expected
Following the stock market opening on Monday, the S&P 500 and Dow are trading higher by 0.20% and 0.55% respectively. The Nasdaq however, was trading lower at 0.20% today. Among exchange-traded funds, the Nasdaq 100 tracker Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ: QQQ) is down by 0.12% while the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA: SPY) is up by 0.33%.
The 10-year Treasury yield reached its highest points since July 2019, rising to 2.08%. Oil prices also dipped below $103 per barrel to a two-week low, while the average price for gas at the pump held near a record above $4.30 per gallon across the U.S.
Starting the week, investors are now eagerly waiting for the Federal Reserve’s latest monetary policy decision due for release on Wednesday. Analysts are also expecting the Fed to raise interest rates for the first time since 2018 as the central bank takes its first major step toward removing monetary policy that has helped ease the pandemic.
[Read More] Top Stock Market News For Today March 14, 2022
Ford Honing On In European EV Market, Expects Seven New Models By 2024
On the electric vehicle (EV) front, Ford (NYSE: F) appears to be kicking into high gear. Namely, the company is now looking to significantly bolster its push into the European market. As of earlier today, the automotive titan is planning to release seven new EV models in Europe. Additionally, Ford is also looking to construct a battery-assembly site in Germany and is working on a nickel cell manufacturing joint venture in Turkey. All of which would mark a massive boost for the company’s EV expansion plans in the region.
In detail, the company is planning to introduce at least three new electric passenger vehicles and four commercial EVs by 2024. As it stands, Ford is expecting to sell over 600,000 EVs in Europe by 2026. The likes of which would contribute to the company’s larger goal of delivering over 2 million EVs a year while achieving an adjusted operating profit margin of 10% by 2026. By and large, this update on its European strategy follows another major announcement by the company. Namely, Ford is putting an additional $50 billion towards kick-starting its EV unit separately from its conventional combustion engine operations.
With its overall electrification plans in mind, Ford continues to double down across the board. The company is also planning to expand its ongoing work with Volkswagen. By doing so, it is now working to produce a second EV for the European market based on Volkswagen’s modular electric-drive platform. This would essentially double Ford’s production goals for the project. Because of all this, investors may want to look out for F stock today.
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Coupang Stock Slips After News Of SoftBank Reducing Position By $1 Billion
Meanwhile, Korean e-commerce firm Coupang (NYSE: CPNG) seems to be in a tough spot now. Evidently, CPNG stock is currently looking at losses of over 4% at today’s opening bell. For the most part, this could be a result of Japan’s SoftBank selling off a part of its majority stake in Coupang. To begin with, news broke of SoftBank’s Vision Fund selling 50 million shares of Coupang over the weekend. The company reportedly sold the shares at about $20.87 each. The entire stake is currently valued at about $1.04 billion. In spite of the current sale, SoftBank remains Coupang’s biggest shareholder at about 461.2 million shares following the sale.
As you can imagine, such a move would have investors feeling less bullish about the company. This is especially apparent after a report from Goldman Sachs last week. In brief, the bank is marketing a block sale of 50 million CPNG stock. Despite all of this, there are some analysts that see the possible reasoning behind SoftBank’s latest move.
In the words of Redex Research analyst Kirk Boodry, “they’re going to sell the winners.” Explaining further, Boodry notes that it is currently estimated that SoftBank investments in Coupang are at an average of $4.80 per share. This also comes at a time when SoftBank’s Vision Fund is feeling the burn from a downturn in Chinese tech stocks that make up a noticeable portion of its portfolio. Regardless, it would not surprise me to see CPNG stock making headlines in the stock market today.
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