US Stocks
The United States stock markets closed mostly higher on Wednesday’s session amid release of the latest economic which showed an improvement in the country’s private sector.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average index closed 0.61% higher, the Nasdaq 100 fell 0.12% at the end of the trading session while the S&P 500 touched a new closing record after gaining 0.13%.
Didi Chuxing NYSE Listing
The main news of the day; Chinese ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing Technology made its debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday at a starting price of $16.65.
Trading under the ticker DIDI, the counter opened 19% above the initial public offering (IPO) price of $14 per share before closing 13.73% lower.
The Chinese ride-hailing company raised $4.4 billion in the IPO, selling 316.8 million American Depository Shares (ADS), therefore valuing the firm at more than $70 billion.
Boeing Appoints New CFO
Aerospace company Boeing has appointed Brian West as its executive vice president and chief financial officer effective August 27. West worked as CFO for General Electric Co., as well as Oscar Health Insurance Corp. and Nielsen Holdings PLC. He has been the CFO of Refinitiv since 2018.
“In this role, West will lead all aspects of Boeing’s financial strategy, performance, reporting and long-range business planning, as well as investor relations, treasury, controller, and audit operations.” the company said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Boeing has announced that Germany’s Ministry of Defense has officially signed off on an order for five Boeing P-8A Poseidon aircraft under the US government’s Foreign Military Sales (FMS) process.
Upon completion of the dealr, Germany will be the eighth customer of the multimission maritime surveillance aircraft, joining the list of Posideon holders along the US, the UK, Australia, India, Norway, Korea and New Zealand.
Uber asks staff to return to office 50% of time
Uber Technologies informed its employees that they will be asked to return to partially return to the office from September.
The company said that employees will be required to be in the office 50% of the time but that they will be able to distribute home and office time as they wish. The staff will also be able to pick an office they want to work in from a list of “dedicated team hubs.”
Microsoft, AT&T sign 5G, cloud deal
Microsoft has announced that AT&T Communications “will move its 5G mobile network to the Microsoft cloud.”
Under the deal, AT&T’s mobile network traffic will be run with the help of Microsoft Azure technologies. In addition, Microsoft will expand its Azure for Operators telecommunications product using “AT&T’s intellectual property and technical expertise” and will acquire AT&T’s Network Cloud, the platform that operates AT&T’s 5G core network.
HP CEO joins PayPal Board
PayPal Holdings said on Wednesday that HP Inc. President and CEO Enrique Lores became the 12th member of PayPal’s board of directors.
Lores took over as HP’s CEO in November 2019, after starting as an engineering intern in a career spanning more than 30 years at the company.
“Enrique is a proven leader with deep experience at the highest levels of the technology industry, and his product and operational expertise will be invaluable to PayPal as we continue to expand our leadership position in this new digital era,” PayPal CEO Dan Schulman noted on the appointment.
Bank of Russia To Begin Testing Digital ruble in January 2022
The Bank of Russia has announced on Tuesday that the testing of the digital ruble platform will start in January 2022.
“The development of a prototype platform for the digital ruble is planned to be completed in December 2021,” Russia’s central bank noted, adding that testing will be carried out in several phases throughout 2022, after which the bank will form “a roadmap for the introduction of the digital ruble.”
A “pilot” group of 12 banks that includes VTB Bank, Gazprombank and PJSC Sberbank will participate in the testing stage.
READ; US Stock Markets Brief; Microsoft, Adobe, Google, NVIDIA
