The United States stock markets were mixed at the closing bell on Thursday after hitting record highs on Wednesday’s trading session.
The Dow Jones Industrial was up 0.57% with Walmart Inc closing 4.54% higher. The Nasdaq 100 fell slightly by 0.38% while the S&P 500 was up 0.17%.
Major Global News
TikTok Sale
Microsoft Corp has teamed up with Walmart Inc. to acquire video-sharing app TikTok’s business in the United States following President Donald Trump executive order which forces ByteDance to sell it to a US company.
The news drove Walmart’s shares by more than 6% on Thursday’s session after the company confirmed the news.
According to Bloomberg, Oracle Corporation has also placed a bid worth $20 billion in an attempt to buy video-sharing app TikTok’s business in the United States. Oracle’s proposal includes a $10 billion payment in cash and another $10 billion in Oracle stock.
This comes after ByteDance earlier this week filed a lawsuit against the US government, in an attempt to challenge the decision to ban the app in the US.
TikTok’s Chief Executive Kevin Mayer on Thursday announced he’s leaving the company less than three months into the job. According to media reports, the CEO cites being excluded from negotiations over the possible sale of the app in the US.
Bezos Networth Surpasses &200 Billion
The founder of Amazon.com Jeff Bezos on Wednesday became the first person to surpass a personal net worth of $200 billion.
According to Forbes, Bezos net worth hit $204.6 billion on Wednesday, when Amazon stock gained 2%.
Rolls Royce Earnings
Rolls-Royce Holding on Thursday released its earnings report for the first half of 2020 with its revenue falling by 26% to £5.8 billion. Its operating loss came in at £1.77 billion, with a loss per share of £2.8.
“We ended 2019 with good operational and financial momentum. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected our 2020 performance, with an unprecedented impact on the civil aviation sector with flights grounded across the world. ” company’s CEO Warren East said in a statement.
Dell Earnings
American multinational technology company Dell Technologies on Thursday released its earnings for the second quarter of the fiscal year 2021 with revenue declining slightly by 3% to $22.7 billion. Net income fell by 74% to $1.14 billion while earnings per share fell 69% to $1.37 per share.
Tesla Stock Rally
Tesla stock has continued to rally ahead of the company’s recent announcement of a 5-for-1 stock split which will take place on August 31. Over the last one month, automaker’s shares are up by more than 45%.
According to the Global Times, Tesla is expected to start the production of its Model Y in China by early 2021.
Abbort Labs
Shares of Abbott Laboratories surged by more than 10% to hit an all-time high of $113.72 per share after the health care company announced that the US Govt has authorized its fast COVID-19 test for emergency use.
