Stock Market Today: Live Updates

GameStop shares plunged more than 14% after the video game retailer reported a sharp drop in fourth-quarter revenue compared to the same period last year. The company's fourth quarter sales were $1.79 billion, down from $2.23 billion in the same period last year.

Separately, the company announced it was laying off an unspecified number of employees during the quarter to cut costs.

Investment firm Wedbush removed Netflix from its “Best Ideas” list, saying the streaming video giant may need to find new growth areas to fuel another big rally.

“We think it will be much harder for Netflix to impress investors in 2024 than it was in 2023. Some of the growth drivers, such as the crackdown on password sharing, are not fully priced in. “We believe there is still some benefit from that, but it is modest and now expected,” the company said in a note to customers.

Meanwhile, Wedbush said Netflix's advertising base is unlikely to become a revenue growth driver until 2025.

Despite the potential for lower growth, Wedbush still has an Outperform rating on Netflix. The company's stock price has increased 29% since the beginning of the year.

— Jesse Pound

Check out some of the companies making headlines in pre-market trading.

• Robinhood — The brokerage firm's stock rose more than 6% after announcing the Robinhood Gold Card, a credit card that lets you deposit cash back into your brokerage account.

• Concentrix — Shares fell nearly 4% on the back of a disappointing fiscal second-quarter profit outlook. The customer experience technology company also reiterated its full-year outlook for 2024.

• GameStop — Shares plunged more than 17% after the video game retailer reported a sharp drop in fourth-quarter revenue compared to the same period last year. The company added that it has also made an unspecified number of job cuts across Quartet to reduce costs.

Read the full list here.

— Brian Evans

Barclays said the outcome of the upcoming U.S. election is unlikely to have a significant impact on stocks that benefit from the Anti-Inflation Act's clean hydrogen tax credit.

“Ahead of this year's U.S. election, we are receiving a number of inquiries from investors regarding potential IRA changes under various U.S. election scenarios. In all three election scenarios: Blue Wave, Red Wave, and Divided Government. “We believe the risk is limited to hydrogen tax credits, and the 45Q (blue) tax credit is likely to be more protected from change than the 45V (green),” the bank said in a note on Tuesday. is written in.

If there is a red wave, Republicans could certainly try to abolish parts of the IRA. But Barclays pointed out that the hydrogen tax credit is more protected than other parts of the IRA.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Despite the benefits of artificial intelligence trading, UBS says investors should not forget one stock category: small- and mid-cap stocks.

“While we believe the excitement around AI is reasonable, we also see attractive value in small and medium-sized businesses.As concentration risks increase, adding small and medium-sized businesses to our portfolios , increasing returns and improving diversification over the long term,” the bank wrote in a note on Tuesday.

Investing in small and medium-sized enterprises also has the added benefit of gaining exposure to other structural growth themes such as energy transition, health care collapse, and water scarcity. UBS further added that while valuations are low and improving, macro changes are also emerging in small and mid-cap stocks.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Merck shares rose more than 4% in premarket Tuesday after the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of Winreair to treat adult pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Eliav Barr, Merck's chief medical officer, told CNBC: “This is a very important opportunity for the company, but more importantly, it's a very important opportunity for patients.”

— Fred Imbert

Governor Kazuo Ueda reportedly said on Wednesday that the Bank of Japan would closely monitor exchange rate trends and their impact on the domestic economy.

“Forex movements are one of the factors that have a major impact on the economy and prices,'' Ueda said in Congress, according to a Reuters report.

The Japanese yen hit 151.97 yen against the dollar in early trading, its lowest level in 34 years. The previous trade was 151.72.

Japan's central bank last week ended eight years of negative interest rate policy and abolished its yield curve control policy.

—Shreyashi Sanyal, Reuters

The Japanese yen hit a 34-year low against the US dollar on Wednesday, falling to 151.97 yen before appreciating slightly.

The yen has fallen below the all-time low of 151.95 yen set in October 2022.

Japanese officials have issued strongly worded statements regarding the currency, with Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki reportedly saying, “We will not rule out any measures to address disorderly exchange rate fluctuations.”

China's combined industrial profits in January and February rose 10.2% year-on-year, according to data from the country's statistics bureau.

Profits of state-owned enterprises rose 0.5% in January and February, while foreign companies, including those from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, posted a 31.2% increase in profits.

According to NBS data, profits of private companies increased by 12.7% year-on-year.

Industrial profits for the full year of 2023 fell by 2.3%.

— Lim Huijie

Shares in K-pop agency Hive Entertainment rose as much as 7.4% after the agency signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Universal Music Group for the next 10 years.

The move pushed the company's stock price to its highest level in nearly three months, marking the biggest single-day increase since October 2023.

Artists under UMG include Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, and Justin Bieber.

Hybe, home of K-pop sensation BTS, said the deal will grant it access to UMG's network.

UMG will also collaborate with Hybe's fan platform, Weverse, to “bring a more direct connection between UMG artists and fandom,” the announcement said.

— Lim Huijie

Piper Sandler says rising recession risks are unlikely to put a damper on the current market rally.

In fact, the opposite may be true.

“Our belief that rising recession risks (i.e., weak macro data) will drive stock prices higher is certainly an unusual view!” the investment firm wrote. “We continue to take a constructive view that lower interest rates due to weaker macroeconomic indicators will lead to further stock price gains in the coming quarters.”

Going forward, Piper Sandler sees rising interest rates as the biggest threat to market gains and the most likely trigger for a correction.

— Lisa Kailai Han

HSBC Global Research released a list of 13 surprising market statistics in a note Tuesday.

Here are a few:

• “Bitcoin's current market capitalization is higher than the GDP of 159 countries in 2023.”
• “40% of retail sales in South Korea are done online, compared to less than 25% in the US and Western Europe.”
• “China's annual cement consumption has declined by 15% since 2020, but is still more than the United States has consumed in the past 20 years.”
• “India, South Korea and Taiwan have twice as many large, liquid companies open to foreign investors than mainland China.”

— Lisa Kailai Han

Stock futures rose slightly after 6pm ET.

Dow futures rose 0.2%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures each rose 0.1%.

— Alex Harring