Check out the companies making headlines before the bell. Applied Materials — Shares tumbled more than 8% after the semiconductor equipment manufacturer offered weak revenue guidance for the current quarter. Applied Materials said it forecasts $7.15 billion in the first fiscal quarter, under the estimate of $7.224 billion from analysts polled by LSEG. The company also reported better-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter results and provided a strong outlook for adjusted earnings per share. Alibaba — S hares jumped more than 3% after the Chinese e-commerce giant beat profit expectations in its fiscal second quarter , although its sales disappointed as the company continues to grapple with weaker consumer spending in China. Alibaba’s net income rose 58% year-on-year, on the back of its equity investment performance. Its revenue of 236.5 billion yuan came out 5% higher year-on-year but below analysts’ expectations of 238.9 billion yuan, according to LSEG data. Moderna — The biotech company’s shares fell 1.8%, continuing its decline from Thursday following the news that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent vaccine skeptic, was announced as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Domino’s Pizza , Pool Corp. — Shares of the pizza chain jumped about 6% after Warren Buffett ‘s Berkshire Hathaway announced a new stake in Domino’s in a regulatory filing. Berkshire Hathaway bought more than 1.2 million shares, making the investment worth around $550 million at the end of September. Pool Corp. also gained 6% as the conglomerate purchased around 404,000 shares of the swimming pool supplier, worth $152 million at the end of the period. Ulta Beauty – Shares slipped 5% after Berkshire Hathaway revealed in a regulatory filing that it had nearly dissolved its position in the beauty retailer, selling around 97% of its shares. Ulta was a new bet for Berkshire, which had just bought the stock in the second quarter. Palantir — The defense tech stock rose more than 2% after saying it was moving its listing to the Nasdaq Global Select Market from the New York Stock Exchange. The company said it expects to be eligible to join the Nasdaq-100 Index once it makes the switch. — CNBC’s Jesse Pound, Lisa Kailai Han and Pia Singh contributed reporting
Customers look at BYD electric cars at an auto show in Yantai, in eastern China’s Shandong province on April 10, 2025.
Stringer | Afp | Getty Images
BEIJING — Competition in China’s electric car market just got fiercer with consequences for the domestic economy and even the global auto market.
Industry giant BYD last week announced a slew of discounts — some of nearly 30% or more — across severalof its lower-end battery-only and hybrid models. The budget-friendly Seagull compact car saw its price drop to 55,800 yuan ($7,750).
Other major Chinese automakers have begun following suit.
“BYD’s action this time has made the industry rather nervous,” Zhong Shi, an analyst with the China Automobile Dealers Association, said in Mandarin, translated by CNBC.
“The industry is in [a state of] relatively large shock,” he said, noting smaller automakers are now more worried about their ability to compete.
The industry has been a rare bright spot in an economy that has been seeing slower growth and lackluster consumer demand. Part of Beijing’s latest attempt to spur consumption included subsidies for new energy vehicles, a category that includes battery-only and hybrid-powered cars.
“The latest car price competition underscores how supply-demand imbalance continues to fuel deflation,” Morgan Stanley’s Chief China Economist Robin Xing said in a report Wednesday.
“There is growing rhetoric about the need for rebalancing [to more consumption], but recent developments suggest the old supply-driven model remains intact,” he said. “Thus, reflation is likely to remain elusive.”
China’s electric car market has already been in a price war for the last two years, partly fueled by Tesla.
But this time, traditional automakers, including state-owned ones, are feeling significant heat as the share of new energy vehicles has come to account for about half of new passenger cars sold in China.
Last week, Great Wall Motors Chairman Wei Jianjun warned of an “Evergrande” in China’s auto industry that had yet to explode, comparing the fast-growing EV industry to the country’s bloated real estate sector. The outspoken private sector autos executive was speaking to Chinese media outlet Sina in an interview posted on May 23.
Once China’s real estate giant, Evergrande defaulted on its debt in late 2021 as the property market slumped after Beijing cracked down on the company’s high debt levels. Demand for homes also fell following tighter government regulations, leaving the developer struggling to finance the remaining construction of pre-sold units.
As Chinese media scrutiny on automakers’ financial situation rose, BYD on Wednesday refuted reports that it excessively pressured one of its dealers on cash flow. The dealer, Jinan Qiansheng in the eastern province of Shandong, did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment. BYD referred CNBC to its statement to Chinese media.
In China, the average car retail price has fallen by around 19% over the past two years to around 165,000 yuan ($22,900), according to a Nomura report this week, citing industry data from Autohome Research Institute.
Price cuts were far steeper for hybrid or range-extension vehicles, at 27% over the last two years, while battery-only cars saw prices slashed by 21%, the report said. It noted that traditional fuel-powered cars saw a below-average 18% price cut.
In contrast, the average price of a new car in the U.S. was $48,699 in April, up nearly 1% from two years earlier, according to CNBC calculations of data from Cox Automotive. The average electric car price last month was an even higher $59,255.
BYD’s latest round of price cuts didn’tinclude the company’s higher-end models priced around 200,000 yuan, such as its flagship Han electric sedan.Reuters pointed out the newest model of the Han released in February was about 10% cheaper than its previous version, according to its calculations.
The Chinese auto giant, which was backed by Warren Buffett in its early years, has rapidly captured market share in China with its wide range of cars at various price points. The company reported a net profit increase of 49% to 14.17 billion yuan last year. Total current liabilities rose by more than 60% to 57.15 billion yuan. Cash and cash equivalents fell slightly to 102.26 billion yuan.
Price war to continue
Rather than reflecting market expansion, double-digit growth of new energy vehicles sales in China is just eating into internal combustion engine cars’ slice of the pie, Ying Wang, Fitch managing director, APAC Corporate ratings, told reporters Tuesday. She noted how the country’s auto market hasn’t grown much since 2018, and expects autos retail sales to only increase by low single digits this year.
Automakers will keep on using price cuts to gain market share in China this year, she said. Wang pointed out another option is for companies to include more features, such as advanced driver-assist systems, for free instead of asking consumers to pay more for them as an add-on.
Geely-backed Zeekr in March said it was releasing its advanced driver-assist system for free, while Tesla has attempted to charge its customers for a similar feature. A month earlier, BYD announced it was rolling out driver-assist capabilities to more than 20 of its car models.
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In the last several months, China’s top leaders have increasingly called for efforts to address non-productive business competition, known as “involution.” The term was mentioned in the premier’s annual work report in March and in the market regulator’s meeting last week which called for “comprehensively rectifying ‘involutionary’ competition.”
However, the massive effort to produce lower-cost electric cars in China, and the automakers’ subsequent move to expand into other markets, has increased worries about the impact on other countries’ auto industries.
But in the EU, tariffs have had limited effect. In April, BYD outsold Tesla in Europe for the first time, according to JATO Dynamics. Tesla’s Europe sales plunged by 49% that month, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.
Check out the companies making headlines in after-hours trading. Nvidia — The artificial intelligence chipmaker’s shares jumped 5% after Nvidia reported better-than-expected quarterly results , as its data center business recorded year-over-year growth of 73%. Nvidia reported first-quarter adjusted earnings per share of 96 cents on revenue of $44.06 billion, higher than analysts’ estimates for earnings of 93 cents a share on revenue of $43.31 billion, according to LSEG. HP — Shares of the personal computing company tumbled 15%. HP shared disappointing guidance , anticipating its fiscal third-quarter adjusted earnings will land between 68 cents to 80 cents per share. That’s short of the LSEG consensus estimate of 90 cents a share. Second-quarter adjusted earnings also missed the mark. Salesforce — Shares of the sales and customer service software maker rose about 1% after the company posted better-than-expected fiscal first-quarter results and lifted its full-year forecast. Salesforce reported earnings of $2.58 per share, excluding items, while analysts polled by LSEG expected $2.54 per share. The company’s revenue of $9.83 billion beat analysts’ consensus call for $9.75 billion. Veeva Systems — The cloud solutions company saw shares surge 16%. Veeva issued rosy guidance for the second quarter, calling for adjusted earnings to range from $1.89 to $1.90 per share, while LSEG consensus estimates sought $1.79 per share. The company also lifted its full-year outlook. C3.ai — The enterprise artificial intelligence software company saw its shares pop 14% on the back of a strong quarterly financial report. For its fiscal fourth quarter, C3.ai reported a loss of 16 cents per share, while analysts surveyed by LSEG forecasted a loss of 20 cents per share. C3.ai’s revenue of $109 million for the period exceeded the consensus estimate of $108 million, per LSEG. Pure Storage — Shares of the data management and storage company slipped about 3%. Pure Storage reaffirmed its full-year revenue guidance, which narrowly beat Wall Street’s expectations, coming in at $3.515 billion, while FactSet consensus estimates called for $3.51 billion. CFO Kevan Krysler will also be leaving the company. He is expected to stay at Pure Storage until the company has found a successor. Agilent Technologies — The manufacturer of scientific equipment saw shares climb 6%. Fiscal second quarter adjusted earnings came in at $1.31 per share on revenue of $1.67 billion. Analysts were looking for $1.26 per share in earnings and $1.63 billion in revenue, per FactSet. SentinelOne — Shares of the cybersecurity stock plunged more than 11%, hurt by the company’s lackluster earnings and weak guidance. In the first quarter, SentinelOne reported 2 cents per share in adjusted earnings, in line with analysts’ expectations, per LSEG. The company’s revenue of $229 million slightly beat the consensus estimate of $228 million. Looking ahead, SentinelOne said it expects second-quarter revenue to come out at $242 million, while analysts polled by LSEG expected $245 million. — CNBC’s Darla Mercado contributed reporting.
Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir Technologies, speaks during the Digital X event in Cologne, Germany, on Sept. 7, 2021.
Andreas Rentz | Getty Images
Quasi-governmental financial firm Fannie Mae on Wednesday announced a partnership with defense tech player Palantir to detect mortgage fraud, deepening ties between the federal government and a company that has been a big winner in the second Trump administration.
Priscilla Almodovar, Fannie Mae CEO, said Wednesday at a press event that the goal is for the firm to “identify fraud more proactively” with the help of Palantir, starting with its multi-family housing business. An early test showed that Palantir’s technology, which includes elements of artificial intelligence, could identify fraud in seconds that took human investigators two months to find, she said.
Shares of Palantir have jumped more than 140% since President Donald Trump’s election win in November. The technology stock has roles in both modernizing the U.S. military and helping to cut costs in government, making it a seemingly strong fit for the administration’s stated priorities. CEO Alex Karp said Wednesday that the mortgage fraud detection can be done in a way that “protects the underlying data and protects the privacy of the people submitting their forms.”
Shares of Palantir have dramatically outperformed the broader stock market since the November election.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are government-sponsored enterprises that have been under the conservatorship of the Federal Housing Financing Agency since 2008. The official names of the two enterprises are the Federal National Mortgage Association and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, respectively.
FHFA director William Pulte said Wednesday the Palantir program could be expanded to Freddie Mac in the future and that the agency is also talking to Elon Musk’s xAI firm about a potential partnership.
“The sky’s the limit. We’re not just limited to fraud. If there are ways to pull cost out of the system, we want to do it,” Pulte said.
The press release did not include a dollar amount that Fannie Mae would pay to Palantir for this service.
The announcement comes as there is a push to potentially bring Fannie and Freddie out of conservatorship and re-establish them as something closer to independent companies.
“Our great Mortgage Agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, provide a vital service to our Nation by helping hardworking Americans reach the American Dream — Home Ownership,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Tuesday. “I am working on TAKING THESE AMAZING COMPANIES PUBLIC, but I want to be clear, the U.S. Government will keep its implicit GUARANTEES, and I will stay strong in my position on overseeing them as President. These Agencies are now doing very well, and will help us to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
The “implicit guarantee” mentioned by Trump refers to the idea among investors that the government won’t let Fannie and Freddie default on their mortgage-backed securities. That concept is not legally binding but does help that massive market function and, in theory, lead to lower mortgage rates by reducing the perceived risk to investors in the housing market.
Pulte, who is the grandson of the founder of homebuilding firm PulteGroup, said on CNBC’s “Money Movers” that an exact plan for bringing Fannie and Freddie public is still undetermined and could even involve the companies remaining in conservatorship.
“Whether the president decides to sell a small piece, or what have you, that’s entirely up to the president,” he said.
There are equity shares of the two firms that trade over the counter, and those shareholders could conceivably see a large profit if Fannie and Freddie are taken public. One such shareholder is Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square, and the hedge fund manager has publicly called for IPOs of the two firms.