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10 things you need to know in markets today
REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Good morning! Here's what you need to know in markets on Wednesday.
1. Microsoft, Facebook and more than 30 other global technology companies on Tuesday announced a joint pledge not to assist any government in offensive cyber attacks. The Cybersecurity Tech Accord, which vows to protect all customers from attacks regardless of geopolitical or criminal motive, follows a year that witnessed an unprecedented level of destructive cyber attacks, including the global WannaCry worm and the devastating NotPetya attack.
2. US stocks rose for a second day Tuesday on better-than-expected earnings reports and as markets shrugged off the latest rise in US-China trade war tensions. The S&P 500 rallied nearly 1.25%, led by Netflix.
3. Asian shares crept ahead on Wednesday after Wall Street took heart from upbeat corporate earnings, though nagging concerns about trade barriers and the global growth outlook kept currencies and bonds subdued. Japan's Nikkei stock index closed up 1.47%, the Hong Kong Hang Seng is up 0.79% at the time of writing (7.25 a.m. GMT/2.25 a.m. ET), and China's Shanghai Composite is up 0.63%.
4. Inflation is coming. Data on price rises in the UK in March is due at 9.30 a.m. GMT (4.30 a.m. ET), followed by Eurozone inflation data half an hour later. UK inflation is forecast to remain steady at 2.7%.
5. The price of bitcoin tumbled more than 2% in a matter of minutes Tuesday afternoon, just hours after New York's Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced an investigation into major cryptocurrency exchanges. Bitcoin is up 0.42% against the dollar to $7,934.55 at the time of writing (7.05 a.m. GMT/2.05 a.m. ET).
6. Cambridge Analytica was planning to raise money by issuing a new type of digital currency before it became embroiled in a scandal surrounding the misuse of Facebook personal data, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday. The British data analytics consultancy had approached a firm that advises companies on how to structure an initial coin offering, an increasingly popular online fundraising scheme involving the issue of a new digital currency, the sources said.
7. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has acquired a stake in cloud computing platform VMware, CNBC reported on Tuesday. Icahn's stake is said to be below the 5% limit that warrants public disclosure, CNBC said, mentioning that a particular agenda for anything specific from VMware or Dell is unclear.
8. IBM shares fell more than 5% on Tuesday after the company announced its first-quarter 2018 earnings. IBM actually beat analyst expectations on both revenue and earnings per share for the quarter, but Wall Street didn't take lightly to its $0.04 miss on expectations for full-year 2018 earnings per share.
9. Apple shares rallied 1.5% after Bloomberg reported the tech giant is launching a subscription news service. The service could launch later this year and would be an improved version of the current Apple News app, Bloomberg said.
10. Shares in Twitter surged more than 10% on Tuesday after Morgan Stanley raised its price target for the stock, reversing its argument of a stretched valuation and citing improving user growth. "While previously we were cautious about the durability of TWTR's platform turnaround, more positive advertiser/agency conversations and (we believe) improving user growth make the risk/reward more compelling," analysts led by Brian Nowak said in a note to clients Tuesday.
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