Tuesday, January 23, 2018

What to watch today

With the government shutdown set to be in the rear-view mirror in Washington, D.C., financial markets started the week on a positive note with each of the major averages hitting new all-time highs. The tech-heavy Nasdaq paced gains on Monday with a 0.7% advance that brought its year-to-date gains to a whopping 7% while the S&P 500 gained 0.5% and the blue-chip Dow was up about 0.3%.

On Tuesday, markets will get a number of major earnings reports during a week that sees the earnings flow really ramp up, with notable reports expected from Procter & Gamble (PG), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Travelers (TRV), United Airlines (UAL), Capital One (COF), and Yahoo Finance parent company Verizon (VZ).

The economics calendar is fairly barren, with only the Richmond Fed’s latest manufacturing index serving as a highlight.

Markets will also keep an eye on shares of Netflix (NFLX), which were up as much as 8% in after hours trade after subscriber adds during the fourth quarter topped expectations.

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Top news

Trump makes first big trade move with tariffs aimed at Asia: President Donald Trump slapped tariffs on imported solar panels and washing machines, his first major trade move after repeated threats to crack down on what he sees as unfair foreign competition. The U.S. will impose new duties of as much as 30% on foreign-made solar equipment, the U.S. Trade Representative’s office said. The president also approved tariffs starting as high as 50% on imported washing machines. [Bloomberg]

Tesla ties CEO Musk’s compensation to company’s performance: Tesla Inc. (TSLA) said Chief Executive Elon Musk will receive no guaranteed compensation of any kind, and that he will be paid only if the company and all of its shareholders do extraordinarily well. The new performance award consists of a 10-year grant of stock options that vest in 12 tranches, with each tranche vesting only if both market capitalization and operational milestones are met, the company said. [Reuters]

Netflix crosses $100 billion market cap: Netflix Inc. (NFLX) snagged 2 million more subscribers than Wall Street expected in the final three months of 2017, tripling profits at the online video service that is burning money on new programming to dominate internet television around the world. The results drove Netflix to a market capitalisation of more than $100 billion for the first time. [Reuters]

UK regulator puts brake on Murdoch’s $15.7 billion Sky deal: Rupert Murdoch’s $15.7 billion takeover of Sky is not in the public interest and should be blocked unless a way is found to prevent the media tycoon from influencing the network’s news output, Britain’s regulator said. [Reuters]