Corporate results:
 
  • Domino's Pizza Group reported higher profits thanks to lower costs.
  • Generali closes the 2023 financial year with record profits and a higher dividend.
  • Leonardo reports lower 2023 results and targets improved cash generation.
  • Oracle - The database specialist is up 13.6% in pre-market trading after beating expectations on Monday evening with its quarterly profit and promising a joint announcement later this week with Nvidia, the chip and artificial intelligence giant, a theme that has been driving the markets for months.
  • Porsche AG announces a drop in profitability this year, but increases its dividend.
  • Sensirion plunges into the red in 2023 and says it is cautious for this year.
  • Wacker Chemie expects a further fall in profits in 2024.
  • Alaska Air Group announced on Tuesday that it expected a smaller-than-expected first-quarter loss, thanks to strong travel demand.
  • Southwest Airlines - On Tuesday, the airline lowered its forecast for the number of aircraft it should receive this year from Boeing, the aircraft manufacturer facing production delays. 
  • Kohl’s reported quarterly sales down 1.1% to $5.71 billion on Tuesday, pushing the share price down 5.5% in premarket trading. The drop in sales was less marked than expected, however, with holiday discounts and strong beauty sales in its Sephora stores providing some support for the quarter.
In other news:
  • Li Ning reportedly discusses delisting.
  • Boeing failed 33 of 89 audits conducted by the FAA after the Alaska Airlines incident in January, according to the NYT. The company is also reportedly under investigation by the DOJ for potential violation of the 2021 agreement following two B737MAX crashes.
  • Merck & Co completes acquisition of Harpoon Therapeutics.
  • The head of Mercedes (which makes a third of its sales in China) opposes customs barriers against Chinese EVs.
  • Walt Disney targets a $4.5 billion reduction in annual content spending.
  • Meta shares fell over 4% yesterday after Trump called Facebook "the enemy of the people".
  • ECB authorizes Intesa Sanpaolo's €1.7 bn share buyback program.
  • China's Xiaomi launches its first electric car on March 28.
  • Samsung and SK Hynix halt sales of used chip production machines for fear of a negative reaction from the USA, according to the FT.
  • Nidec and KPS compete for Siemens AG's Innomotics unit, which could be worth $3 billion, according to Bloomberg.
  • Activist shareholder Third Point unveils a stake in Advance Auto Parts.
  • British American Tobacco considers the possibility of disposing of a "small part" of its stake in India's ITC through a block market transaction.
  • Fire at Exxon Mobil's French refinery under control.
  • Tesla's "Autopilot" and "Full Self Driving" features and nine other driver assistance systems marketed by major automakers received "poor" ratings from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) in a new study published Tuesday. In other news, Tesla's stock advanced 1% in pre-market trading as power was restored to its factory near Berlin.
  • Pfizer announced on Tuesday that a combination treatment with Adcetris and two other drugs had achieved the primary objective of a late-stage study, namely to prolong the survival of patients with a type of blood cancer.
  • Goldman Sachs Asset Management aims to expand its private credit portfolio to $300 billion in five years, from the current $130 billion, Marc Nachmann, the group's global head of asset and wealth management, told Reuters in an interview.
  • New York Community Bancorp rose after completing the $1 billion capital injection agreed last week with a group of investors. The troubled regional bank also plans to submit a three-for-one reverse stock split to its shareholders.
  • Innodata proposes to merge with Australian software company Appen in an all-share deal, the latter announced on Tuesday.