What's moving markets today: April 4, 2019
US markets close mostly higher; Tesla falls 8%
The Dow ended the day up more than 160 points, or 0.6%.
Investors are waiting for news about the trade negotiations between the United States and China. President Donald Trump is expected to meet with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He at 4:30 pm ET. They could reportedly announce a summit with President Xi Jinping.
The Nasdaq fell about 0.1%, while the S&P 500 rose 0.2%.
Tesla (TSLA) plunged more than 8% after the company reported a big drop in deliveries last quarter. CEO Elon Musk also appeared in federal court in New York, the latest chapter in his ongoing battle with the SEC.
Constellation Brands (STZ) jumped 6.5% after the Corona maker reported results that beat Wall Street’s expectations.
And Boeing (BA) finished up nearly 3%. Earlier in the day, Ethiopian officials released a preliminary report that showed pilots followed proper procedures, but were not able to control the 737 Max plane that crashed last month. Boeing says it’s working on a software fix.
Elon Musk arrives to court
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has just arrived in a Manhattan court ahead of a hearing where the US Securities and Exchange Commission will ask a judge to hold Musk in contempt for violating a settlement deal.
Oral arguments will begin at 2 pm ET.
Tesla (TSLA) shares have slightly recovered from their earlier lows.
Salesforce is sliding, but it's unclear why
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff
Salesfore (CRM) shares are down roughly 4% today, according to a puzzled Paul R. La Monica:
- The stock is up 15% for the year.
Stocks stay mixed on trade uncertainty
Deal or no deal?
That's the question for markets, which are struggling to find direction Thursday amid uncertainty about the status of trade negotiations between the United States and China.
President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He at 4:30 p.m. ET. Multiple news outlets report that they could announce a summit with President Xi Jinping.
As of midday trading:
Tesla (TSLA) shares are still almost 8% lower after the company reported a massive drop in deliveries last quarter.
Investors are underestimating climate risks: BlackRock report
A new BlackRock report says investors aren't paying enough attention to how climate change and extreme weather events could hit asset prices.
Particularly at risk: municipal bonds, commercial real estate and US utilities.
From Brian Deese, BlackRock's global head of sustainable investing:
We find that the risk posed by more frequent and severe weather events such as hurricanes and wildfires are not fully reflected in the price of many assets, including US utility equities."
Context: California utility PG&E recently filed for bankruptcy protection and faces billions of dollars in liability over deadly wildfires. It named a new CEO on Wednesday.
Despite woes, Facebook's stock is still rising
Here's some problems Facebook (FB) has been dealing with lately:
- April 3: Millions of Facebook records are found to be posted publicly on Amazon’s cloud servers.
- March 15: Facebook struggles to halt the spread of horrific footage that showed the massacre at two New Zealand mosques.
- March 14: Two top executives depart.
- March 13: Facebook faces a federal criminal investigation into its data-sharing deals with a number of large technology companies.
So, how's the stock doing? Decently, according to our Paul R. La Monica.
Here's what the stock has done since the beginning of 2019:
Office Depot drops nearly 17% after earnings warning
Office Depot (ODP) stock fell nearly 17% after the company announced that its first quarter earnings will come in below expectations.
In a statement, Office Depot said “lower than expected operating performance” by its IT solutions division CompuCom is to blame. The office supplies giant said a combination of reduced revenue from CompuCom’s existing projects and the company’s inability to reduce costs resulted in the division losing $15 million.
Office Depot, which also owns OfficeMax, will release its full earnings report on May 8.