US Stocks Gain, Bajaj Auto Q3 Results, Honda's Plans For New India Plant | Rise With Profit

This is the daily morning update from NDTV Profit. Over the next few minutes, we’ll bring you up to speed with everything you need to know to start your day on the right note.

Listen to this as a podcast here.

US stocks gained back some lost ground overnight as tech stocks rebounded. Investors piled into Nvidia, which crashed after the blazing popularity of Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek. The stock recorded the worst ever single-day drop for any US stock on Monday, but then recovered about 9% overnight.

In fact, the tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed over 2%, while the S&P 500 and the Dow rose 0.9% and 0.3%, respectively. Bond yields have given up further ground, with the 10-year Treasury now just above 4.5%. Investors are perhaps a little cautious ahead of the outcome of the latest meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee later tonight. Consensus expectations are for a pause in interest rate cuts.

Ahead of that decision, data showed that US consumer confidence weakened for a second straight month in January amid renewed concerns about the labour market and inflation.

The Conference Board said on Tuesday that its consumer confidence index fell to 104.1 this month, from an upwardly revised 109.5 in December. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the index rising to 105.6 from the previously reported 104.7.

Only two of the three early risers in the Asia Pacific region were trading this morning and they were both positive. Many markets will be shut for the lunar new year holiday.

In news back home, Japan’s Honda Motor Co. is planning to set up a dedicated electric two-wheeler plant in India by 2028.

“A wide variety of electric models will be produced by combining modules commonised for multiple models,” Daiki Mihara, the head of motorcycle and power products electrification business at Honda Motor, was quoted as saying in a statement. “Additionally, for batteries, the core component of electric models, Honda has been working with battery manufacturers to establish specifications suited to the characteristics of motorcycles and ensure stable procurement.”

In regulatory news, the Securities and Exchange Board of India has returned US-based investor Danny Gaekwad's letter, which sought permission to make a competing open offer for equity shares of Religare Enterprises. The regulator found that the letter was not an exemption under the security law regulations. Gaekwad’s offer spoke of a 17% premium over the Rs 235-a-share offer made by the Burman family for a 26% stake in Religare. In addition to this, his offer is for a 55% stake in the company.

In other news, Adani Group will be investing Rs 2.3 lakh crore in Odisha across five years in sectors such as power, cement, aluminium, city gas, and industrial parks. Karan Adani, managing director of Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd., met with Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi to exchange Memorandums of Understanding for investments in the state.

In earnings, the one Nifty 50 company to report earnings after market hours was Bajaj Auto Ltd. The company met estimates, with a 5.7% rise in topline. The company’s margin was flat at 20.2%, which pushed the net profit higher by about 3% to Rs 2,108.7 crore.

India’s Budget To Test Mixed Market Cues As Macro Woes Persist

RBI Issues Details On $5-Billion Forex Swaps

DeepSeek’s Success Rattles US Tech Market, But Positives Seen For India's AI Sector

H1B Changes To Raise Indian IT’s Costs By 10-30%, Boost Offshoring

Disclaimer: NDTV Profit is a subsidiary of AMG Media Networks Limited, an Adani Group Company.