Asia stocks to drop; U.S. shares sink, bonds rally
Asian stocks look set to fall Thursday after a sharp reversal in U.S. shares on concerns about risks from the omicron strain and as Jerome Powell reiterated a pivot toward potentially tapering stimulus more quickly.
Australian equities dropped and futures for Japan and Hong Kong pointed lower, while U.S. contracts edged up. The $S&P 500 Index(.SPX.US)$ posted its worst two-day selloff since October 2020 after erasing a near-2% rally to slide into the close. The technology-heavy $NASDAQ 100 Index(.NDX.US)$ underperformed.
Oil rally fizzles as first U.S. case of omicron rattles markets
West Texas Intermediate closed down 1%, erasing earlier gains of as much as 5%. The omicron variant continued to worry investors with the first case detected in California and a doubling of South Africa's Covid-19 cases from Tuesday.
Qualcomm jumps into hot gaming market with new chip for portable game consoles
$Qualcomm(QCOM.US)$ introduced a new microchip on Wednesday for handheld gaming consoles. The chip, called Snapdragon G3x, will debut in a portable device made by Razer with a 6.65-inch screen and a built-in controller that resembles a Nintendo Switch.
Qualcomm is the biggest supplier of chips at the heart of Android phones made by companies such as Samsung and Xiaomi, and Wednesday's announcement signals that it wants to provide chips for gaming devices as well.
Trump SPAC social media company appears to miss its first product deadline
Former President Donald Trump's new social media company appears to have missed its own November deadline to launch an invitation-only beta version of "Truth Social," its purported alternative to Twitter. The share price of $Digital World Acquisition Corp(DWAC.US)$ -- the SPAC company that plans to merge with Trump's social media firm -- has dropped dramatically since it exploded when the deal was announced in late October.
The November release date was the first clear test of whether the company could deliver on its promises to investors who bought stock in DWAC.
Tesla models take top two spots in new car sales in Norway
$Tesla(TSLA.US)$'s Model Y and Model 3 were the most sold new cars in Norway last month, with the Volkswagen ID.4 rounding out the top three, according to the Information Council for Road Traffic.
Jack Dorsey's Square changes corporate name to Block
$Block(SQ.US)$ CEO Jack Dorsey stepped down from his role as $Twitter (Delisted)(TWTR.US)$ CEO on Monday.
Payments giant Square will change its corporate name to Block, effective Dec. 10. The move comes as Square expands beyond its original credit card reader business, with a focus on new technologies like blockchain.
Retailers need to stoke the Christmas spirit to hit lofty holiday sales targets
$Target(TGT.US)$, $Walmart(WMT.US)$ and other retailers hope to keep holiday sales going strong in December, despite a wave of early holiday shopping, scarcer deals and new concerns over the omicron variant. The total number of shoppers and average spending dropped during the extended Thanksgiving weekend compared with each of the past two years, according to the National Retail Federation.
The trade group has reiterated its forecast for a record holiday season and projected a total of between $843.4 billion and $859 billion of sales in November and December.
Cramer says he's not ready to take profits in Nvidia, sees stock at $10 trillion one day
CNBC's Jim Cramer said Wednesday he's holding $NVIDIA(NVDA.US)$, even though he recently booked some profits in two other big charitable trust winners. Cramer revealed Wednesday morning his trust sold some $Advanced Micro Devices(AMD.US)$ shares. In late October, the trust sold some Ford.
"I admit to being piggish in Nvidia, because this may be a $10 trillion stock," Cramer said on "Fast Money Halftime Report."
Source: Bloomberg, CNBC

Asia stocks set for steady start; Oil, yields jump
Asian stocks looked set for a steady start Wednesday after a mixed Wall Street session and a further climb in Treasury yields as traders weighed the prospect of tighter monetary policy to curb inflation.
Australia edged up at the open. Futures for Japan and Hong Kong were little changed. U.S. futures dipped modestly. Energy and financials helped the $S&P 500 Index(.SPX.US)$ eke out a gain, while the $NASDAQ 100 Index(.NDX.US)$ extended a drop. A gauge of Chinese shares traded in the U.S. fell for a second day.
Mall brands plunge as Gap, Nordstrom add to supply worries
Mall staples $Gap Inc(GPS.US)$ and $Nordstrom(JWN.US)$ tumbled after reporting disappointing results, adding to a series of worrisome retail earnings and renewing concerns over the global supply-chain crisis.
Gap shares fell 17% as of 5:55 p.m. Tuesday after regular trading in New York, while Nordstrom plunged 23%. Mall-based peer $Abercrombie & Fitch(ANF.US)$, which reported results prior to the market open, fell 13% Tuesday. $Urban Outfitters(URBN.US)$ slipped 9% after its earnings report.
Meme stocks suffer worst day since June as risk-off rages
Meme stocks including $GameStop(GME.US)$ and $Bed Bath & Beyond Inc(BBBY.US)$ are tumbling Tuesday as investors bail out of riskier assets in favor of value-oriented companies.
A group of 37 retail-trader favorites tracked by Bloomberg fell 5.5% Tuesday, the worst drop for the group since mid-June.
Profitable companies are leaving money-losing stocks in the dust
Making a profit is really paying off again. Investors are rewarding companies that make money at the highest rate in almost two decades when compared to their money-losing peers.
The average return for profitable members of the $Russell 3000 Index Ishares(IWV.US)$ is 36% this year, about triple the gains for unprofitable companies, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Retail traders jump back into tiny biotechs ahead of holiday
Two tiny biotechs, $iSpecimen(ISPC.US)$ and $Longeveron(LGVN.US)$, are the latest to see their stocks caught up in a social media-fueled frenzy ahead of a U.S. trading holiday.
ISpecimen closed 49% higher Tuesday after more than doubling at the open and triggering a volatility halt. The stock is majority held by individuals and about 44% is held by insiders.
Rocket Lab CEO says companies not reusing rockets are making 'a dead-end product'
$Rocket Lab(RKLB.US)$ CEO Peter Beck has dramatically changed his tune on reusing rockets, a practice made increasingly popular by Elon Musk's SpaceX.
"I think anybody who's not developing a reusable launch vehicle at this point in time is developing a dead-end product because it's just so obvious that this is a fundamental approach that has to be baked in from day one," Beck said on Tuesday.
SpaceX is launching a NASA spacecraft that will crash into an asteroid
Elon Musk's SpaceX is set to launch a first-of-its-kind planetary defense mission for NASA in the early hours of Wednesday morning. "We're smashing into an asteroid," NASA's Launch Services Program senior launch director Omar Baez said.
The mission is known as the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (or DART). NASA is trying to learn how to deflect a threat if it were headed toward Earth.
Apple sues company known for hacking iPhones on behalf of governments
$Apple(AAPL.US)$ is suing NSO Group, an Israeli firm that sells software to government agencies and law enforcement that enables them to hack iPhones. Amnesty International said earlier this year it discovered recent-model iPhones belonging to journalists and human rights lawyers that had been infected with NSO Group malware.
Apple said on Tuesday it patched the flaws that enabled the NSO Group malware and would warn iPhone owners who may have been targeted.
Source: Bloomberg, CNBC

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