US Stocks Fall, Tesla Worst Performer On S&P 500; Hero MotoCorp Sales Down| Rise With Profit

Good morning! This is the daily morning update from NDTV Profit and I'm Alex Mathew. We bring you up to speed with everything you need to know to start your day ahead of the curve.

Equities fell globally, with U.S. stocks erasing early gains. This continues trends from the end of the year, with higher bond yields and stronger dollar putting pressure on risk assets. The dollar, in fact, hit a two-year high after economic data indicated that the U.S. labour market remained strong at the end of the year.

Initial applications for US unemployment at the end of 2024 came in at an eight-month low, reflecting the relatively muted levels of job cuts in a labour market that has remained surprisingly resilient. New claims fell by 9,000 to 211,000 in the week ended Dec. 28, lower than all but one estimate in a Bloomberg survey. Meanwhile continuing applications, a proxy for the number of people receiving benefits, also fell to a three-month low of 1.84 million in the week ended Dec. 21, according to Labor Department data released yesterday.

There are updates on the two unfortunate events that took place in the U.S. in New Orleans and Las Vegas. In New Orleans, the FBI has confirmed that the U.S. Army veteran, Shamsud-din Jabbar, pledged allegiance to Islamic State, but acted alone.

Meanwhile, in the case of the exploding Tesla cybertruck, authorities believe that Matthew Livelsberger, a 37-year-old active-duty Army soldier from Colorado Springs, was inside the vehicle when gasoline canisters and large firework mortars in the truck bed exploded. Authorities are awaiting DNA confirmation.

Speaking of Tesla, its shares were the worst performers on the S&P 500, dropping over 6% after it reported its first drop in annual deliveries. The S&P 500 fell 0.2%, while the Dow and the Nasdaq fell 0.4% and 0.2% respectively. Two of the early risers in the Asia Pacific region, the Kospi in South Korea and the Australian benchmark, were both higher at the start today. Japanese markets continue to be shut.

In news back home, Hero MotoCorp's total sales in December fell by 17.5% to 3.24 lakh units. The decline is on account of weaker domestic sales, which dropped 22% year-on-year during the month.

Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors have become India's first automakers to receive production incentives for manufacturing electric vehicles. The Union Ministry of Heavy Industries has approved a total disbursal of Rs 246 crore to the automakers under the production-linked incentive scheme for manufacturing of advanced automotive technology in India, according to a statement released yesterday.

An interesting update on Avenue Supermarts – it reported an 18% annual growth in its standalone revenue from operations in the quarter ended December. But you may want to watch out for the consolidated numbers. Citi, for one, believes that the growth is led by store expansion and there could be some impact on same-store sales growth.

The volume of digital transactions continues to rise. Transactions via the Unified Payments Interface reached a record 16.73 billion in December, marking an 8% increase compared to the previous month, according to data from the National Payments Corporation of India. In November, UPI transactions stood at 15.48 billion.

Markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India has imposed a liability of Rs. 65.7 crore on Ketan Parekh, Rohit Salgaokar, and others in the extended front running case. The regulator gave these directions in an interim order. SEBI observed in its order that Parekh had violated security law provisions several times, and hence it is pertinent to fix a liability for the entire scheme on the parties responsible. The regulator has said that Parekh and Salgaocar devised the scheme.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India has expanded the scope of investigation against Zee Entertainment Enterprises, its Chief Executive Officer Punit Goenka, and Chairman Emeritus Subhash Chandra. The order mentions the dropping of the 2022 notice against the three, such that a single larger probe remains against them.