FT : US energy secretary eager for ‘flood of investment’ in Venezuela

US energy secretary eager for ‘flood of investment’ in Venezuela
Chris Wright says Washington will not provide security or financial guarantees despite oil executives’ concerns

US energy secretary Chris Wright said that Washington “wants to see a flood of investment” come into Venezuela after meeting with the country’s interim president Delcy Rodríguez in Caracas, even as he insisted the US would not provide the guarantees oil executives have demanded.

“We’re massively changing the viability of commercial business on the ground in Venezuela, and American interest in it is just overwhelming,” Wright told reporters during a roundtable event following his meeting with Rodríguez on Wednesday afternoon.

However, Wright, the most senior US official to visit Venezuela since US forces captured authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro on January 3, said Washington would not provide security or financial guarantees for US companies in the South American country.

US companies have expressed scepticism about getting involved in Venezuela, with ExxonMobil chief executive Darren Woods saying in a televised meeting with President Donald Trump last month that the country was “uninvestable”.

“I believe we’re going to see Venezuela go from a very high-risk nation to do commerce in . . . and businesses on their own risk-reward evaluation will respond accordingly,” said Wright, a former oilfield services executive at Liberty Energy.

Venezuela boasts the world’s largest proven oil reserves, but its relations with the US have soured dramatically since the late revolutionary socialist Hugo Chávez assumed the presidency in 1999 and established close ties with US adversaries, including Russia, China, Cuba and Iran.

Speaking about Chinese business interests in Venezuela, which include investments in the energy sector, Wright said: “China does a lot of deals in countries where they’re not mutually beneficial commercial deals.”

“I think with US help and US partnership, we want to stop those kinds of deals,” he added. “But legitimate deals of legitimate Chinese businesses . . . we treat those as legitimate things.”

During Chávez’s tenure, ending with his death from cancer in 2013, Venezuela expropriated assets belonging to US oil companies, including ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, while installing political and military allies at PDVSA, the state oil company.

Upon taking the presidency Maduro oversaw an economic collapse and humanitarian crisis, with hyperinflation surging and millions fleeing abroad. During Trump’s first term the White House levied sanctions on PDVSA. Maduro is regarded by the US and many of its allies to have stolen re-election in 2024.

Since Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were captured, Washington has begun rolling back restrictions, including on Tuesday issuing a licence that allows oilfield services contractors to bring equipment into Venezuela. Chevron already had a sanctions exemption licence, making it the only US oil major currently operating in the country.

“Washington is working seven days a week to issue licences” that would allow companies to operate in Venezuela, and “we want to set the Venezuelan people and economy free”, Wright said in remarks given alongside Rodríguez at the Miraflores presidential palace.

However, hours later he told reporters that “there’s no specific calendar right now” for lifting sanctions.

Rodríguez, a life-long socialist who served as Maduro’s vice-president before receiving the Trump administration’s backing to lead business-friendly reforms, said that “through diplomacy, we will overcome our differences”.

Her government pushed through a new hydrocarbons law late last month that weakens the state’s control over the sector, reduces the tax burden on companies and allows for international arbitration of disputes.

Wright said the reform would promote investment, though “it should go further . . . that would be a bigger win for Venezuela and the world”.

Asked by the FT if she would soon visit Washington as relations between the two countries thaw, Rodríguez said: “I have a lot of work to do here.”

FT : How China wants to create a ‘Polar Silk Road’ through the Arctic

How China wants to create a ‘Polar Silk Road’ through the Arctic
Beijing targets shipping routes and resources in far north

Capable of breaking through floes up to 2.5 metres thick, China’s latest Arctic icebreaker is a powerful symbol of Beijing’s ambitions in the far north, where tensions have soared over US President Donald Trump’s attempts to claim control of Greenland.

The proposed bull-nosed, nuclear-powered vessel, unveiled as a conceptual design in December, is intended to provide a prototype for Beijing’s emerging polar fleet. 

China’s state-run 708 Research Institute, which designed the vessel, says it will be a “multirole” cargo and polar tourism ship.

While China describes its interests in the region in terms of trade and research, few analysts doubt the dual civilian-military intent of Beijing’s Arctic programme, from establishing research bases to oil and gas co-operation and joint military patrols with Russia near Alaska.

China’s icebreaker construction programme has added to western alarm about Chinese and Russian advances in the Arctic, which Trump has used to justify an American takeover of Greenland. 


“China views the Arctic as a new frontier that is critical to its geopolitical and geostrategic competition with the US and with the west more broadly,” said Helena Legarda, head of programme for the foreign relations team at Merics. “Beijing wants to expand its influence, footprint and access to the Arctic.”

Those ambitions have deepened concerns among experts and policymakers in the US and other western capitals, who foresee a scramble to secure faster and cheaper shipping lanes and rich natural resources as polar ice caps melt.

The Arctic offers myriad possibilities for military operations, ranging from space and satellite warfare to strategic positioning of nuclear-armed submarines, raising the risk that tensions spill over into confrontation in the race to control the emerging territory.

The shipyard used to build the first indigenous icebreaker also delivered the Fujian, China’s third aircraft carrier, which entered service late last year with some of the country’s most advanced military technologies. The yard is run by state-owned behemoth China State Shipbuilding Corp.

China has harboured ambitions in the Arctic for decades. But its activity has rapidly gained pace in recent years, in line with its growing economic and geopolitical clout.

Beijing bought its first icebreaker, the Xue Long — Snow Dragon — from Ukraine in 1993, before it began developing its own indigenous fleet. In 2004, it opened its first permanent Arctic research station in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago, followed by another in Iceland in 2018. 

The same year, Beijing unveiled its Arctic policy, which envisages “a ‘Polar Silk Road’ through developing the Arctic shipping routes”. The policy touted China’s research and “hydrographic surveys” in the region, which it said aimed to improve “security and logistical capacities in the Arctic”.

Icebreakers are crucial for projecting power in polar regions, enabling countries to enter often frozen territory and maintain a presence. The Trump administration has earmarked $9bn for icebreakers and infrastructure in the Arctic and Antarctic to “secure US access, security and leadership in the polar regions”, the defence department said in December.

China described itself as a “near-Arctic state” in its 2018 policy paper, drawing a sharp rebuke from then-secretary of state Mike Pompeo. “There are only Arctic states and non-Arctic states,” Pompeo said. “No third category exists, and claiming otherwise entitles China to exactly nothing.”

Until a few years ago, Merics’ Legarda said, Europe was China’s preferred partner in the Arctic. But after Europe began “de-risking” from China and Russia following the Covid-19 pandemic and Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Beijing grew closer to its northern neighbour. 

The main shipping routes from Europe to China pass through Nato-controlled territories, including Canada and Greenland. 

China has in recent years become particularly interested in a Northern Sea Route which passes through Russian waters.

Arctic routes “can cut voyage distances by 30 to 40 per cent compared with the traditional Suez Canal route”, Yu Yun, a 708 Research Institute researcher, told the state-owned China Daily.

China reported that in September, a container ship called the Istanbul Bridge sailed from Ningbo, in eastern Zhejiang province, via the Arctic Northern Sea Route to Britain’s Felixstowe port. It said the voyage marked “the official opening of the world’s first Arctic container express shipping route between China and Europe”, a route it dubbed the “China-Europe Arctic Express”.

Beijing has also invested in mining, energy and infrastructure projects in Russia’s north, from coal near Murmansk to a deepwater port at Arkhangelsk on the White Sea, which China’s main shipping company, Cosco, reportedly plans to use as its main Arctic base. 

But experts believe that while Russia wants to explore economic opportunities with China, there is a limit to its willingness to co-operate.

“Russia are co-operating closely with China, but there is kind of ambiguity about letting them into the Arctic as [Russia] wants to be the hegemon,” said Tore Sandvik, Norway’s defence minister.

A senior Nordic official said that the eight Arctic states, including Russia, did not want China to take on any formal role in the polar region. “China calls itself a near-Arctic state, and I think that is near enough for all of us. We don’t want a form of governance that gives China a say.”

But James Char, a China expert at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said Beijing’s strategy was to engage in long-term “presence-building” in the region, rather than “unabashed power projection”.

Most Chinese military activity, including joint naval and air force patrols with Russia, was near Alaska — about 4,000km away from Greenland — according to Jo Inge Bekkevold, a senior fellow at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies. “To date there has not been one single known Chinese military vessel sailing in the Arctic Ocean,” Bekkevold said.

The military usefulness of the North Sea Route was also often overstated, Bekkevold said.

Its narrow sea lanes and short seasons can leave vessels vulnerable in a conflict, he said, adding it would be difficult for China to sneak nuclear submarines into the Arctic through the Bering Strait undetected. 

While the journey from northern China to Europe might be shorter through the Arctic, for exporters in the country’s southern manufacturing heartland, it was still faster to ship through the Suez Canal to Greece, Bekkevold said. 

For its part, China has sought to portray its interests in the Arctic in civilian rather than strategic terms.

The 708 Maritime Institute’s new icebreaker will be capable of transporting hundreds of passengers and cargo containers, and will create a “luxurious, immersive and safe” polar travel experience for passengers, Cui Meng, a polar vessel engineer at the institute, told China Daily.

Char said that China portrayed its activities as “for research or trade and tourism, but I think they’re also staking a claim in some of these Arctic regions for themselves”.

FT : Russia blocks Meta’s WhatsApp messaging service

Russia blocks Meta’s WhatsApp messaging service
Move follows months of pushing users to state-controlled app

Millions of Russians were abruptly cut off from the encrypted WhatsApp messaging service on Wednesday afternoon after months of efforts to force them on to a “national messenger” built for surveillance.

Russian authorities removed the Meta-owned app, which had at least 100mn users in the country until recently, from the equivalent of an online directory run by Roskomnadzor, the internet regulator, earlier on Wednesday.

That step essentially erases WhatsApp from Russia’s internet, making it nearly impossible to access the service without elaborate workarounds.

It is a more complete block than the earlier attempts to slow down the app and indicates Moscow intends to cut off access to the service for a long period of time or permanently.

WhatsApp said: “Today the Russian government has attempted to fully block WhatsApp in an effort to drive users to a state-owned surveillance app. Trying to isolate over 100mn people from private and secure communication is a backwards step and can only lead to less safety for people in Russia.”

Moscow also erased Meta’s Facebook and Instagram from the directory, leaving them accessible only via VPNs (virtual private networks) after they had been designated as “extremist”. Access to YouTube was also visibly degraded, according to Russian internet analysts, but it is not clear if it had been completely erased from the online directory.

The removals seem to be the culmination of a long-running effort to push Russians to a rival app called Max, modelled on China’s WeChat, which combines messaging and government services — but without any encryption.

Iran has similarly tried to create local services to rival those from foreign companies, intending to push citizens on to a National Information Network that the government can more easily monitor.

Max was officially designated the “national messenger” last year, boosting the usage of the little-known app owned by leading Russian social media network VKontakte (VK), which is directly controlled by President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.

Earlier this week, Russia had also stepped up its disruption of Telegram, which is more popular in the country than WhatsApp, especially for consuming news and entertainment.

Telegram’s Russia-born founder, Pavel Durov, denounced the new restrictions, saying “restricting citizens’ freedom is never the right answer”.

“Telegram stands for freedom of speech and privacy, no matter the pressure,” he said on the messaging service.

Restrictions on Telegram have backfired domestically, sparking criticism even among Kremlin supporters. The app has been widely used by Russian soldiers on the frontline as well as by the residents of regions bordering Ukraine who relied on it for alerts about drone and missile attacks.

“I am concerned that slowing Telegram could affect the flow of information, if the situation deteriorates,” Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of one such region, Belgorod, wrote on his Telegram channel.

Russia has been actively degrading access to WhatsApp and Telegram since last summer, with “partial restrictions” that made voice calls impossible.

By December, authorities slowed WhatsApp by 70 per cent to 80 per cent, according to Russian media reports, degrading its usability in a country already suffering from internet slowdowns as a result of Ukrainian attacks and state interventions.

FT : Apple faces new tensions with Trump administration

Apple faces new tensions with Trump administration
US regulator issues warning to iPhone maker about its News platform following controversy over Super Bowl half-time show

Apple has been warned by the Federal Trade Commission not to stifle conservative content on its Apple News platform, as tensions rise between the smartphone maker and the Trump administration.

In a letter to chief executive Tim Cook, FTC chair Andrew Ferguson cited recent press coverage of a report from conservative media watchdog Media Research Center which claimed that Apple has promoted “leftist outlets” in its news feed.

Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr, a fellow Trump appointee and vocal critic of Big Tech, applauded Ferguson’s move on Wednesday, saying that “Apple has no right to suppress conservative viewpoints in violation of the FTC Act”.

The public rebukes for Apple from top US enforcers came the day after President Donald Trump shared coverage of the MRC report on Truth Social.

“Any act or practice by Apple News to suppress or promote news articles based on the perceived ideological or political viewpoint of the article or publication . . . may violate” US laws that prevent businesses from misleading consumers, Ferguson said. 

Ferguson, who Trump appointed to lead the US competition and consumer protection watchdog, said that Apple should carry out a “comprehensive review” of its terms of service and take corrective action if its content curation is not in line with them.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

The letter marks an escalation in public tensions between Apple and members of the Trump administration in recent days.

Trump has attacked Big Tech companies over claims they have suppressed conservative voices and has targeted Apple over its heavy reliance on manufacturing in China and India.

But the president has generally refrained from criticism of Apple since Cook moved to mend fences with the administration in August.

Cook pledged to spend $600bn in the US over the next four years, while Trump promised Apple an exemption from planned electronics tariffs.  

Tech bosses have been at pains not to provoke the president since he returned to office. But Cook last week posted a selfie with Bad Bunny, the star of the Super Bowl halftime show, which was sponsored by Apple Music and had drawn criticism from Trump.


Trump called the performance on Sunday by Bad Bunny, who has been critical of the president’s immigration crackdown, an “affront to the greatness of America”.

It came shortly after the Apple boss held an all-hands meeting with staff in which he promised to urge the administration to change its approach to immigration enforcement, according to people familiar with the matter, in the wake of the shootings of two people by federal agents during the crackdown in Minneapolis.

Cook faced an online backlash for attending a viewing of Melania Trump’s Amazon Prime documentary at the White House hours after Border Patrol agents killed ICU nurse Alex Pretti.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also shared coverage of the MRC report on X on Wednesday.

The report claimed that none of the 620 top stories featured on Apple’s news app in the first month of 2026 was from a “right-leaning media outlet” such as Fox News, The Daily Mail or Breitbart. 

“These reports raise serious questions about whether Apple News is acting in accordance with its terms of service and its representations to consumers, as well as the reasonable consumer expectations of the tens of millions of Americans who use Apple News,” Ferguson wrote. 

He added that “the FTC is not the speech police” but that free speech protections do not extend to “material misrepresentations made to consumers”.

Ferguson was appointed as chair of the FTC in January last year, replacing Joe Biden-appointee Lina Khan. The following month, the FTC announced that it was launching an inquiry into Big Tech censorship. 

In March, Trump fired the two Democratic commissioners at the agency, Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya. Slaughter’s legal challenge of that decision is pending at the Supreme Court.

Republican commissioner Melissa Holyoak resigned in November, bringing the agency down to just two commissioners out of the usual five.

>>> US After Hours Summary: CSCO -7.1%, ROL -14.7%, QS -11.6%, PAYC -7.6%, INSP

After Hours Summary: CSCO -7.1%, ROL -14.7%, QS -11.6%, PAYC -7.6%, INSP -7.3% lower on earnings; FSLY +32.5%, CGNX +23.9%, PRCH +18.9%, MH +18.3%, EQIX +9.9% higher on earnings; NVCR +56.8% as FDA approves Optune Pax; coal stocks strong;

After Hours Gainers:

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: FSLY +32.5%, CGNX +23.9% (also increases share repurchase authorization by $500 mln), PRCH +18.9%, MH +18.3%, EQIX +9.9% (also increases dividend), VKTX +8.6%, AR +3%, PRI +2.9% (also new $475 mln share buyback program; increases dividend), CXW +2.8%, MSI +2.8%, WTS +2.8%, CW +2.3%, HUBS +1.8% (also authorizes new $1 bln share repurchase program), SLF +1.7%, SAFE +1.6%, RYN +0.7%, AM +0.3%, ASND +0.2%

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to news: NVCR +56.8% (FDA approves Optune Pax), MMS +4.6% (CEO/President discloses purchase of 3,175 shares worth $249K), BTU +4.2% (President Trump to direct DoE to issue funds to coal plants; also directs Pentagon to purchase electricity from coal-fired power plants), CNR +2.5% (President Trump to direct DoE to issue funds to coal plants; also directs Pentagon to purchase electricity from coal-fired power plants), HCC +2.4% (President Trump to direct DoE to issue funds to coal plants; also directs Pentagon to purchase electricity from coal-fired power plants), NAVN +2.3% (names new CFO), ARLP +2.1% (President Trump to direct DoE to issue funds to coal plants; also directs Pentagon to purchase electricity from coal-fired power plants), METC +1.8% (President Trump to direct DoE to issue funds to coal plants; also directs Pentagon to purchase electricity from coal-fired power plants), AMR +1.4% (President Trump to direct DoE to issue funds to coal plants; also directs Pentagon to purchase electricity from coal-fired power plants), AIR +1.1% (names new CFO), FLR +0.8% (awarded contract by LEU), AB +0.5% (reports January AUM), MELI +0.5% (forms commercial partnership with Assaí, according to Reuters), LUV +0.3% (brings Starlink ultra-fast wifi onboard), TPG +0.2% (TPG and JXN launch strategic partnership), BIIB +0.2% (names new Chair of the Board)

After Hours Losers:

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: ROL -14.7%, QS -11.6%, VNDA -9.7%, TYL -7.7%, PAYC -7.6%, INSP -7.3%, CSCO -7.1% (also increases dividend), GRAB -7.1% (also to acquire Stash Financial; also authorizes new $500 mln share repurchase program), FBRT -6.6%, PPC -6.5%, NE -6.1%, APP -6%, NBR -5.9%, QTWO -5.5%, ALMU -5.2%, QDEL -4.9% (also CFO to retire), DAR -3.5%, NBIX -3.2%, ALB -3.1% (also will idle Train 1 at its Kemerton lithium hydroxide processing plant), CRK -2.6%, LPTH -2.6%, WCN -1.8%, AUR -1.8%, CPA -1.7%, SCI -1.6%, CXT -1.2% (also increases dividend), LEG -1.2%, MCD -0.4%, MFC -0.4% (also increases dividend; also new NCIB program that permits repurchase of 2.5% of shares), CFLT -0.2%, IRT -0.2%, AEE -0.1%

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to news: NRGV -17.5% ($125 mln convertible notes offering; also provides guidance), ASTS -10.2% ($1 bln of convertible notes offering; also proposed repurchases of up to $300 mln convertible notes), WRN -5.2% (C$50 mln bought deal financing), BMM -3.9% (advances four core assets), CMS -0.9% (files mixed securities shelf offering), SWKS -0.8% (QRVO and SWKS shareholders approve merger), GLUE -0.5% (files mixed securities shelf offering), GLPI -0.4% (acquires real estate assets of Bally's Lincoln from BALY for $700 mln), PTLO -0.2% (names new CEO), QRVO -0.1% (QRVO and SWKS shareholders approve merger)

WSJ : Bill Ackman Makes a Big Bet on Meta

Bill Ackman Makes a Big Bet on Meta
Pershing Square disclosed a roughly $2 billion position in Facebook’s parent

  • Pershing Square, led by Bill Ackman, revealed a new stake in Meta Platforms, amounting to 10% of its capital at the end of 2025.
  • Pershing Square attributes Meta’s 13% share decline over six months to investor concerns about AI spending.
  • The firm initiated its Meta bet in November at $625 per share, believing Meta’s business model benefits from AI integration

Hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman likes Mark Zuckerberg’s chances in the artificial-intelligence race.

Ackman’s Pershing Square revealed a new stake in Meta Platforms META -0.11%decrease; red down pointing triangle at the annual meeting of one of its funds on Wednesday. The position amounted to 10% of the firm’s capital at the end of 2025, or roughly $2 billion based on past disclosures.

Meta shares are down about 13% over the past six months, a decline that Pershing Square attributes to investor concerns about the sums the company is spending on AI initiatives. Pershing Square’s thesis revolves in part around AI boosting Meta’s content recommendations and personalized ads and potentially unlocking new opportunities in wearables or AI digital assistants for businesses.

“Meta’s business model is one of the clearest beneficiaries of AI integration,” Pershing Square said in its presentation.

Ackman tends to concentrate his stock portfolio in a small number of high-conviction bets. Pershing Square held only 13 different positions at the end of 2025, including other big tech companies Alphabet and Amazon.

The firm initiated its bet on Meta in November at an average cost of $625 per share, according to an investor presentation. Meta’s stock gained 11% from that date through the end of 2025 and another 3% in early 2026.

The Information : A SpaceX IPO Would Be a Tailwind for SPVs

A SpaceX IPO Would Be a Tailwind for SPVs

Maybe the “dumb money” isn’t so dumb after all.

Over the last two years, Silicon Valley has been flooded with special purpose vehicles that promise individual investors a way to own shares in OpenAI, Anthropic and other buzzy startups. These often seemed like a sure way for individuals to lose money, thanks to exorbitant fees and the funds’ sometimes dubious claims of share ownership. But a SpaceX initial public offering could make these funds look like a smart bet after all.

If the stock market ends up valuing SpaceX at $1.25 trillion—the valuation Elon Musk recently said the rocket ship company was worth after combining with his xAI—the price would be 10 times the $125 billion valuation the company had in mid-2022. This far exceeds the roughly 60% increase the DJIA has had in the same time frame.

These SPVs, marketed to amateur investors as a way to buy private shares before a public offering, are riskier than buying shares in a stock index fund. There are currently over 1,000 unicorns, many from the 2021 boom, that have yet to do an IPO and might never do so, which could mean there will never be a return on those investments. A dentist in Iowa who bought a lot of these “billion-dollar startup” shares could lose their shirt.

The funds also don’t have the kind of information about business performance a public company discloses. And they sometimes carry heavy fees, as my colleague Sri wrote in this deep dive in late 2024. One fund, Sand Hill Road Technologies Fund (which is based in Miami, not Silicon Valley), told prospective investors they could get access to shares of SpaceX for $258 a share, roughly double the $135 institutional investors at the time were expected to pay. That markup got them ownership of a fund that was investing in another SPV buying the shares. In a SpaceX IPO, the SPV investors would also pay 20% of the profit on the investment.

However, the IPO valuation Musk and many investors expect is so stratospheric that ordinary investors could make the kind of return only Silicon Valley insiders typically brag about. That could be true even if they bought shares when SpaceX was already valued above $100 billion, instead of $100 million, and have to give up more of the payout.

“There’s this whole industry that supports everything Musk and hypes it,” said Max Wolff, co-founder at Systematic Ventures, which advises investors on SPVs. But the reality is this groupthink might have paid off, at least for now, he said. His companies have “been a reliable returns machine in a low-growth environment.”

Wolff added that he’s seen the industry shift its mentality about SPVs over the years. They were once seen as a way for Silicon Valley insiders to sell their shares to outsiders, but he says that many firms now see them as a way to come up with the large checks needed to compete with the strategic investors and sovereign wealth funds. Venture capitalists “aren’t big enough” to write the billion-dollar checks by themselves.

We’ve seen established firms such as Thrive Capital, Khosla Ventures, Menlo Ventures and others set up SPVs as they participate in huge funding rounds, sometimes selling the shares to limited partners.

It remains to be seen whether the public market agrees with the $1.25 trillion valuation for SpaceX. But if those investors get on board with that figure, expect SPV managers to be touting this as a success story for years to come.

>>> US Gapping down

Gapping down
In reaction to earnings/guidance:
  • MAT -26.7% (also to acquire full ownership of Mattel163; licensing deal with Paramount for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles brand), RPD -23.9%, U -22.7%, ANGI -19.3%, LYFT -17.3% (also authorizes new $1 bln share repurchase program), MBC -16.9%, VPG -16%, ALAB -11.6% (also enters transaction with AMZN under which Amazon may acquire up to 3,262,299 shares; also names new CFO), AVTR -10.6%, CRTO -8.9%, PEGA -8.4%, LEU -8%, HOOD -7.9% (also names new CFO), HUM -7.1%, SAIC -7% (guidance), KHC -6.8%, OI -6.3%, ZG -4.2%, MIR -4%, MLM -3.8%, SITE -3.7%, LAD -3.5%, R -3.4%, NTES -3.3%, PSN -3.1%, FRSH -2.7%, GILD -2.6% (also increases dividend), SOLS -2.6%, RMBS -2.4%, UPST -2.4% (also names new CEO), IVT -2% (also increases dividend), THC -1.6%, PAG -1.6%, CHEF -1.3%, FLNG -1.2%, EXEL -1.1%
Other news:
  • UPB -22.8% (top-line results from the Phase 2 VALIANT clinical trial)
  • MRNA -10.2% (receives FDA refusal-to-file for influenza vaccine)
  • GLTO -5.7% (prices offering of 14,473,685 shares of common stock at $19.00 per share)
  • CURB -2.3% (prices offering of 8.0 mln shares of common stock for gross proceeds of ~$204 mln)
  • RILY -2% (stock offering by selling shareholders, relates to warrants)
  • PLTR -1.3% (extends collaboration with Airbus)
  • TIGO -1.2% (acquires Telefonica operations in Chile jointly with NJJ)
  • ZENA -1% (files for $250 mln mixed securities shelf offering)
Analyst comments:
  • NCLH -0.9% (downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Barclays)

>>> US Gapping up

Gapping up
In reaction to earnings/guidance:
  • MNTN +31.1%, STIM +26%, TDC +16.1%, NET +14.4%, HNGE +13.8%, VRT +13.7%, LSCC +11.1%, SHOP +10.8%, JHX +10%, DIOD +9.9%, CLBT +9.8%, GFS +7.4%, AEIS +6.4%, KVYO +5.3%, UFCS +5.1%, VERX +5.1%, GNRC +5%, TSEM +4%, SUZ +3.2%, OTLY +2.8%, RDWR +2.7%, KRNT +2.5%, VREX +2%, F +1.8%, TTE +1.8%, DAO +1.6%, WELL +1.5%, BL +1.5%, BWA +1.4%, EW +1.3%, RRR +1.2%, TEX +1.2%, AIG +1.1%
Other news:
  • BETA +18.4% (AMZN discloses new poisiton in BETA)
  • RBKB +11.3% (adopts plan of conversion and reorganization)
  • NKTR +5.4% ($300 mln stock offering)
  • FRMI +3.8% (secures $500 mln MUFG financing to fund gas turbine purchases)
  • CAMT +3% (received a $25 mln Hawk systems order)
  • RZLV +2.3% (to acquire Reward for $230 mln in all-cash deal)
  • TFPM +1.5% (to unlock the gold-dominant E44 deposit at Northparkes)
  • APAM +1.3% (reports January AUM)
  • FLYX +1.1% (at the market offering agreement with Lucid Capital)
Analyst comments:
  • KC +7.7% (upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman)
  • MNRO +5.6% (upgraded to Outperform from Perform at Oppenheimer)
  • MT +3.4% (upgraded to Buy from Hold at Jefferies)