Here is a rundown of Cheddar News' top market stories of the day.
BITCOIN RALLIES
The price of bitcoin is back above $20,000 after months hovering around $16,000 per coin. This is still less than a third of cryptocurrency's peak of roughly $65,000 in 2021, but it does show that bitcoin has so far weathered the recent collapse of several large crypto exchanges. Crypto-related stocks were buoyed by the rally, and second-runner Ethereum is up more than 20 percent year-to-date, threatening to cross $1,500 for the first time since November.
TIKTOK'S NEW PLAN
TikTok parent company ByteDance is rolling out a $1.5 billion plan to reorganize its U.S. operations and increase transparency around its data-collecting, according to a Wall Street Journal article. The China-based company is looking to assuage federal regulators' concerns that Beijing can access U.S. TikTok users' data. Tiktok is also looking to convince the U.S. government that it can operate independently of its parent company.
EV SALES SURGE
Electric vehicle sales now make up around 10 percent of global automotive sales, according to data provided to the Wall Street Journal. However, the U.S. continues to lag behind China and Europe when it comes to EV adoption. Just 5.8 percent of U.S. auto sales were electric vehicles in 2022, which is nonetheless more than double the previous year's percentage.
CHINA'S LOW GROWTH
In the West, China has long been synonymous with growth — both economically and demographically. But two official reports out of China Tuesday show that the country's reputation for constant expansion could be coming to an end. China recorded its first population drop in more than 70 years and its second-lowest growth rate in four decades. The country's economy grew around 3 percent in 2022, which is less than half what it achieved in 2021.
About 780,000 pressure washers sold at retailers like Home Depot are being recalled across the U.S. and Canada, due to a projectile hazard that has resulted in fractures and other injuries among some consumers.
Europeans upset with Elon Musk still aren’t buying his electric cars, adding to a long losing streak for his company.
President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to break a 2-2 tie ahead of the board considering the largest railroad merger ever proposed.
Ford is recalling more than 355,000 of its pickup trucks across the U.S. because of an instrument panel display failure that’s resulted in critical information, like warning lights and vehicle speed, not showing up on the dashboard.
Nvidia reported a 56% increase in second-quarter revenue and a 59% rise in net income compared to a year ago.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos claims audiences don't want to watch Netflix movies in theaters, but that seems not to be the case recently.
Chipmaker Nvidia is poised to release a quarterly report that could provide a better sense of whether the stock market has been riding an overhyped artificial intelligence bubble or is being propelled by a technological boom that’s still gathering momentum.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
