Stock rebound to extend in Asia; Treasuries drop
Asian stocks are set to open higher after technology shares led U.S. equities to their biggest rally in nine months as traders bet the omicron Covid variant won't stall the global recovery. Treasuries extended declines.
Futures pointed higher in Japan, Australia and Hong Kong. The $S&P 500 Index (.SPX.US)$ chalked the biggest gain since March to erase all the losses suffered after Jerome Powell's hawkish tilt a week ago. Gauges of volatility retreated, with the Cboe Volatility Index sliding.
Pfizer shot offers partial Omicron shield
In the first reported experiments gauging the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines against the worrisome new strain, researchers at the institute found that the variant could partially evade the vaccine produced by $Pfizer (PFE.US)$ and $BioNTech (BNTX.US)$. Still, its evasion wasn't complete and a booster shot could provide additional protection.
AmEx sees holiday spending soaring as Omicron fails to bite
$American Express (AXP.US)$ said the omicron variant has yet to put a damper on holiday shopping.
Consumer retail spending on the firm's cards so far this quarter -- AmEx's best proxy for holiday results -- has soared 30% compared to pre-pandemic levels, CFO Jeff Campbell told investors at a conference Tuesday.
Tesla rebounds from selloff, leading EV stocks higher
$Tesla (TSLA.US)$, which lost 6.2% last week and extended its decline Monday to briefly fall over 20% from its early November high, helped lift sentiment for other EV producers. UBS Group AG boosted its price target to $1,000 from $725 and said the company is "cementing" its leadership as the electric-vehicle market takes off. Tesla shares rose 4.2% to about $1,052.
MEME ETF is launching as day-trader bets slump
Roundhill Investments is pushing on with plans to list the $ROUNDHILL MEME ETF (MEME.US)$ on Wednesday, according to the firm's Chief Executive Officer Will Hershey.
The product is set to track the Solactive Roundhill Meme Stock Index -- which screens companies based on social-media activity and short interest to create a portfolio of 25 retail-friendly equities.
Amazon Web Services outage brings some delivery operations to a standstill
$Amazon (AMZN.US)$'s cloud computing unit on Tuesday was hit with an outage that took down some websites and services. A notice on AWS' status page confirmed it was experiencing issues in the "US-East-1 Region."
The outage brought down popular services like Disney+, $Netflix (NFLX.US)$ and $Coinbase (COIN.US)$, along with critical internal tools at Amazon like its Flex and AtoZ apps used by warehouse and delivery workers.
Elon Musk says 'civilization is going to crumble' if people dont have more children
The tech billionaire said low and rapidly declining birth rates are "one of the biggest risks to civilization." His comments come as a growing number of people are deciding not to have children, citing concerns such as climate change and inequality.
Musk added that too many "good, smart people" think there are too many people in the world and that the population is growing out of control.
Intel plans to take self-driving car unit public in the U.S. in mid-2022
$Intel (INTC.US)$ has announced that it plans to list Mobileye, the Israeli autonomous driving firm it acquired for $15.3 billion in 2017, as part of an effort to branch out into new markets.
Source: Bloomberg, CNBC