AI Investments Drive Tech Giants' Growth Amid Market Volatility

Humanoid Robots Bigget Than Evs, Retail Investors Buy $1B Nvidia But Institutions Sell, Microsoft Offers DeepSeek - Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)

To gain an edge, this is what you need to know today. Humanoid Robot Opportunities Ahead Please click here for an enlarged chart of Tesla stock (TSLA). Note the following: This article is about the big picture, not an individual stock. The chart of TSLA stock is being used to illustrate the point. The chart shows the release of TSLA earnings. The chart shows TSLA stock is still above the support zone as of this writing in the premarket, despite terrible earnings. RSI on the chart shows that TSLA stock bounced back from oversold conditions. The chart shows significant gain in TSLA stock since the last Arora buy signal on November 6. Tesla earnings were terrible, significantly below consensus and whisper numbers. Tesla missed EBIT by 38%. Margin was the lowest in years. TSLA stock first fell on terrible earnings, but then it shot up on humanoid robots and robotaxis. Tesla CEO Elon Musk says the Optimus humanoid robot is a $10T opportunity. Tesla plans to ramp production of Optimus faster than previous products. In The Arora Report analysis, humanoid robots are a bigger opportunity than electric vehicles (EVs). Musk also announced unsupervised full self driving robotaxis are arriving by June 2025. In The Arora Report analysis, the June timeframe is earlier than expected. Significant opportunities are ahead in robotaxis and humanoid robots. The Arora Report will publish signals when opportunities for high risk adjusted returns arise. Buying in TSLA stock is almost all by retail investors. Institutions are not buying TSLA stock. In The Arora Report analysis, Tesla's moonshots are getting closer to reality than institutions believe. As full disclosure, TSLA is in The Arora Report's ZYX Buy Core Model Portfolio. In The Arora Report analysis, TSLA stock should be bought by those not in TSLA stock in the context of a properly diversified portfolio when TSLA stock drops in the buy zone. Retail investors are also rushing headlong into NVIDIA Corp NVDA stock. So far this week, retail investors have bought more than $1B worth of NVDA stock. Prudent investors should note that institutions are taking advantage of retail investor buying and selling NVDA stock on up spikes. Keep in mind, institutions still have massive positions in NVDA. Institutions are simply engaging in the prudent practice of reducing risk in NVDA stock after DeepSeek. We previously shared with you that we would be listening to conference calls from Meta Platforms Inc META and Microsoft Corp MSFT, especially regarding CapEx for AI. Meta is not backing off. Meta reiterated $60B - $65B of CapEx for the year. Microsoft is also not backing off. Microsoft is planning to spend $22B during each of the next two quarters. SoftBank Group Corp - ADR SFTBY, the big Japanese conglomerate that is the prime mover behind Stargate is also not backing off. SoftBank is in discussions to invest $25B in OpenAI. If this investment occurs, SoftBank will become the largest investor in OpenAI, displacing Microsoft. Such an investment indicates that SoftBank does not believe DeepSeek is an existential threat to OpenAI. To date, Microsoft has been mostly dependent on OpenAI. In a development worth noting, Microsoft is hedging its bets. Even after investigating DeepSeek for improperly using data from OpenAI from Microsoft servers, Microsoft has started offering DeepSeek to its customers. Initial jobless claims came at 207K vs. 221K consensus. This data shows the jobs picture is stronger than anticipated. GDP data is inline with expectation. Investors should note this is a lagging indicator. We publish it because the market pays attention to GDP data. However, The Arora Report system is focused on leading indicators. Here are the details: Q4 GDP-Adv. came at 2.3% vs. 2.3% consensus. Q4 GDP Deflator-Adv. came at 2.2% vs. 2.4% consensus. Earnings will be released after the close today from Apple Inc (AAPL), Intel Corp (INTC), and Visa Inc (V). In the early trade, the U.S. market is seeing buying due to developments in Japan. Please scroll down. DJIA is not representing what is happening in the early trade due to Caterpillar Inc (CAT) earnings coming below consensus and whisper numbers. Japan With quantitative tightening, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) has shrunk its balance sheet by $500B. This move is causing the dollar to weaken. Europe The European Central Bank (ECB) has cut its key interest rate by 25 basis points. This is inline with expectations. Magnificent Seven Money Flows In the early trade, money flows are positive in GOOG, META, and TSLA. In the early trade, money flows are negative in AAPL, Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN), MSFT, and NVDA. In the early trade, money flows are positive in SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1 (QQQ). Momo Crowd And Smart Money In Stocks Investors can gain an edge by knowing money flows in SPY and QQQ. Investors can get a bigger edge by knowing when smart money is buying stocks, gold, and oil. The most popular ETF for gold is SPDR Gold Trust (GLD). The most popular ETF for silver is iShares Silver Trust (SLV). The most popular ETF for oil is United States Oil ETF (USO). Bitcoin Bitcoin (BTC.USD) is seeing buying along with tech stocks. Protection Band And What To Do Now It is important for investors to look ahead and not in the rearview mirror. The proprietary protection band from The Arora Report is very popular. The protection band puts all of the data, all of the indicators, all of the news, all of the crosscurrents, all of the models, and all of the analysis in an analytical framework that is easily actionable by investors. Consider continuing to hold good, very long term, existing positions. Based on individual risk preference, consider a protection band consisting of cash or Treasury bills or short-term tactical trades as well as short to medium term hedges and short term hedges. This is a good way to protect yourself and participate in the upside at the same time. You can determine your protection bands by adding cash to hedges. The high band of the protection is appropriate for those who are older or conservative. The low band of the protection is appropriate for those who are younger or aggressive. If you do not hedge, the total cash level should be more than stated above but significantly less than cash plus hedges. A protection band of 0% would be very bullish and would indicate full investment with 0% in cash. A protection band of 100% would be very bearish and would indicate a need for aggressive protection with cash and hedges or aggressive short selling. It is worth reminding that you cannot take advantage of new upcoming opportunities if you are not holding enough cash. When adjusting hedge levels, consider adjusting partial stop quantities for stock positions (non ETF); consider using wider stops on remaining quantities and also allowing more room for high beta stocks. High beta stocks are the ones that move more than the market. Traditional 60/40 Portfolio Probability based risk reward adjusted for inflation does not favor long duration strategic bond allocation at this time. Those who want to stick to traditional 60% allocation to stocks and 40% to bonds may consider focusing on only high quality bonds and bonds of five year duration or less. Those willing to bring sophistication to their investing may consider using bond ETFs as tactical positions and not strategic positions at this time. The Arora Report is known for its accurate calls. The Arora Report correctly called the big artificial intelligence rally before anyone else, the new bull market of 2023, the bear market of 2022, new stock market highs right after the virus low in 2020, the virus drop in 2020, the DJIA rally to 30,000 when it was trading at 16,000, the start of a mega bull market in 2009, and the financial crash of 2008. Please click here to sign up for a free forever Generate Wealth Newsletter. METAMeta Platforms Inc$688.131.72%Overview Rating:Speculative50%Technicals Analysis660100Financials Analysis400100WatchlistOverviewMSFTMicrosoft Corp$414.71-6.24%NVDANVIDIA Corp$118.91-3.87%SFTBYSoftBank Group Corp$31.103.74%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

AMD Chart Highly Instructive For Investors, Google's AI Monetization, Apple Not Immune In China - Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD)

To gain an edge, this is what you need to know today. Instructive Chart Please click here for an enlarged chart of Advanced Micro Devices Inc AMD. Note the following: This article is about the big picture, not an individual stock. The chart of AMD is being used to illustrate the point. The AMD chart is highly instructive for investors. The chart shows that from late 2023 to early 2024, the momo crowd was running up AMD stock, causing it to more than double. We previously shared with you that AMD was not suitable for investing, but AMD was suitable for trading and have given signals as such. The chart shows that AMD stock has dropped from a high of $227.30 to $107.67 as of this writing in the premarket. Prudent investors should note from the chart how fast the move up was in AMD stock and how slow the move down has been. The move up was so fast because the momo crowd could not differentiate between AMD and NVIDIA Corp (NVDA). To the momo crowd, Advanced Micro Devices made GPUs and so did Nvidia. Nvidia's chips were way more advanced than Advanced Micro Devices' chips for AI applications. The biggest demand for GPUs was coming from large language model training. The capabilities needed were in Nvidia's chips, not in Advanced Micro Devices' chips. Nvidia had developed a strong software moat, and Advanced Micro Devices was far behind in software. The momo crowd has continued to aggressively buy AMD stock during the entire period the stock has been moving downward. The anecdotal evidence is that for many in the momo crowd, AMD stock is over 50% of their portfolio. The chart shows volume was high yesterday prior to the report of earnings. The reason for the high volume was the momo crowd was aggressively buying AMD stock with conviction ahead of earnings. The chart shows AMD stock took another leg down after reporting earnings yesterday after hours. Based on the historical precedence of the momo crowd's behavior, at some point in the future, the momo crowd will panic and sell AMD stock. At that time, The Arora Report is likely to give a buy signal to take advantage of the dip caused by the momo crowd panicking. Here are the important takeaways for investors from the AMD chart. Just like AMD stock ran up without proper analysis, many popular stocks have run up way above reason. The prices of these stocks are totally divorced from reality. Examples include quantum computing stocks such as Arqit Quantum Inc (ARQQ), IONQ Inc (IONQ), Sealsq Corp (LAES), D-Wave Quantum Inc (QBTS), Quantum Computing Inc (QUBT), Rigetti Computing Inc (RGTI), and Wisekey International Holding AG - ADR (WKEY). Investors need to differentiate between investing and trading. For example, right now, it is appropriate to only trade quantum stocks but due to quantum computing stocks being divorced from reality, they are not appropriate for investing at this time. Next time you experience FOMO, remember this chart of AMD stock. In the early trade, tech stocks are seeing selling on earnings from Advanced Micro Devices and Alphabet. Investors are beginning to realize Google has an AI monetization problem. Earnings show that Google Cloud growth is slower than expected, but Google is ramping up CapEx over $20B more than expected. Wall Street had continued to believe that Apple Inc (AAPL) was immune from any government action in China. To the contrary, The Arora Report has been warning that there is a China risk in Apple. After Trump imposed tariffs on China, the Chinese government is starting the process of a potential investigation of how Apple charges app developers. In an important development, the Treasury announced $125B of securities, from 3 year to 30 year, to refund approximately $106B Treasuries maturing on February 15. So far, the stock market likes this development, and there is aggressive buying on this news. Factory orders came at -0.9% vs. -0.3% consensus, indicating manufacturing is slowing. There is conflicting data on the jobs picture. JOLTS report came at 7.6M vs. 8.156M prior. ADP is the largest payroll processor in the country and uses its data to give an advanced glimpse of the jobs picture ahead of the official jobs report. ADP payrolls came at 183K vs. 155K consensus. Magnificent Seven Money Flows In the early trade, money flows are positive in Nvidia (NVDA). In the early trade, money flows are negative in Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN), Alphabet Inc Class C (GOOG), Meta Platforms Inc (META), Microsoft Corp (MSFT), NVIDIA (NVDA), Tesla Inc (TSLA), and Apple (AAPL). In the early trade, money flows are mixed in SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1 (QQQ). Momo Crowd And Smart Money In Stocks Investors can gain an edge by knowing money flows in SPY and QQQ. Investors can get a bigger edge by knowing when smart money is buying stocks, gold, and oil. The most popular ETF for gold is SPDR Gold Trust (GLD). The most popular ETF for silver is iShares Silver Trust (SLV). The most popular ETF for oil is United States Oil ETF (USO). Bitcoin Bitcoin BTC/USD is range bound. Protection Band And What To Do Now It is important for investors to look ahead and not in the rearview mirror. The proprietary protection band from The Arora Report is very popular. The protection band puts all of the data, all of the indicators, all of the news, all of the crosscurrents, all of the models, and all of the analysis in an analytical framework that is easily actionable by investors. Consider continuing to hold good, very long term, existing positions. Based on individual risk preference, consider a protection band consisting of cash or Treasury bills or short-term tactical trades as well as short to medium term hedges and short term hedges. This is a good way to protect yourself and participate in the upside at the same time. You can determine your protection bands by adding cash to hedges. The high band of the protection is appropriate for those who are older or conservative. The low band of the protection is appropriate for those who are younger or aggressive. If you do not hedge, the total cash level should be more than stated above but significantly less than cash plus hedges. A protection band of 0% would be very bullish and would indicate full investment with 0% in cash. A protection band of 100% would be very bearish and would indicate a need for aggressive protection with cash and hedges or aggressive short selling. It is worth reminding that you cannot take advantage of new upcoming opportunities if you are not holding enough cash. When adjusting hedge levels, consider adjusting partial stop quantities for stock positions (non ETF); consider using wider stops on remaining quantities and also allowing more room for high beta stocks. High beta stocks are the ones that move more than the market. Traditional 60/40 Portfolio Probability based risk reward adjusted for inflation does not favor long duration strategic bond allocation at this time. Those who want to stick to traditional 60% allocation to stocks and 40% to bonds may consider focusing on only high quality bonds and bonds of five year duration or less. Those willing to bring sophistication to their investing may consider using bond ETFs as tactical positions and not strategic positions at this time. The Arora Report is known for its accurate calls. The Arora Report correctly called the big artificial intelligence rally before anyone else, the new bull market of 2023, the bear market of 2022, new stock market highs right after the virus low in 2020, the virus drop in 2020, the DJIA rally to 30,000 when it was trading at 16,000, the start of a mega bull market in 2009, and the financial crash of 2008. Please click here to sign up for a free forever Generate Wealth Newsletter. AMDAdvanced Micro Devices Inc$108.50-9.20%Overview Rating:Speculative37.5%Technicals Analysis660100Financials Analysis200100WatchlistOverview$BTCBitcoin$97531.40-0.26%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Meta's AI Investments, Llama Expansion, Ad Tech Growth Earn Analyst Conviction - Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)

Analysts highlight Meta's AI investments, Llama upgrades, and ad tech as key drivers for long-term revenue growth. On Thursday, Meta Platforms, Inc META stock is trading higher after multiple firms raised their price forecasts on the stock after the company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter sales results yesterday. JMP Securities analyst Andrew Boone maintained Meta Platforms with a Market Outperform and a $750 price target. Rosenblatt analyst Barton Crockett reiterated Meta Platforms with a Buy and raised the price target from $811 to $846. Stifel analyst Mark Kelley maintained a Buy rating on Meta Platforms and set a price target of $740. Needham analyst Laura Martin reiterated Meta Platforms with an Underperform. Scotiabank analyst Nat Schindler maintained Meta Platforms with a Sector Perform and raised the price target from $583 to $627. Truist Securities analyst Youssef Squali reiterated Meta Platforms with a Buy and raised the price target from $700 to $770. Benchmark analyst Mark Zgutowicz upgraded Meta Platforms from Hold to Buy and a price target of $820. JP Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth maintained an Overweight on Meta Platforms with a price target of $725. RBC Capital analyst Brad Erickson reiterated Meta Platforms with an Outperform and raised the price target from $700 to $800. Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Deepak Mathivanan maintained Meta Platforms with an Overweight and raised the price target from $720 to $790. Goldman Sachs analyst Eric Sheridan reiterated Meta Platforms with a Buy and raised the price target from $688 to $765. DA Davidson analyst Gil Luria maintained Meta Platforms with a Buy and raised the price target from $700 to $800. BofA Securities analyst Justin Post reiterated Meta Platforms with a Buy and raised the price target from $710 to $765. Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak maintained Meta Platforms with an Overweight with a price target of $660. JMP Securities: Boone continues to be impressed with Meta's execution as it benefits from AI, improving the relevance of its content and ads in the near term. Notably, the analyst said it is still early in AI's benefit to Meta's core platform while it unlocks new services like Meta AI that could be meaningful over time. With significant optionality in XR and the potential for Meta to create the next scaled consumer compute platform with Orion, he wants to continue to chase the shares as the Street continues not to give Meta credit for its FRL investments not to give Meta credit for its FRL investments while growth appears increasingly sustainable. Rosenblatt: The fourth quarter of 2024 was a strong quarter for Meta but included things to digest, including higher spending in 2025 and a slower revenue growth pace in the first quarter of 2025, mainly due to foreign exchange. Beyond that, Meta paints a compelling picture of how these investments can accelerate sales in the near and long term while improving cost trends in 2026 and beyond. Nobody is more bulled up on AI than Meta. And Meta might have more benefits to show from AI than anyone. Stifel: Meta reported fourth-quarter results ahead and delivered first-quarter 2025 revenue guidance below the Street. Last week, the fiscal 2025 capital expenditure outlook was offered, and total expense guidance exceeded expectations. The Llama investment cycle continues, with expectations for internal operational improvement, early wins on the consumer-facing side, and with advertisers. Overall, Kelley does not expect the stock to move much post-print but remains positive on the overall health of the digital ads market, which should drive better-than-expected growth throughout the year. Needham: Meta reported strong fourth-quarter of 2024 results. However, from their guidance, Martin would call out rapidly decelerating revenue and EPS growth, rapid FTE growth, and no respite from rapidly rising capital expenditure, which is disappointing given DeepSeek's announcements this week. Also, Meta promised "hundreds of billions of dollars" in long-term capital expenditure, suggesting 2025 is just the beginning of pressure on free cash flow and margins. Martin does not expect multiple expansions, given this outlook. Scotiabank: Meta reported a fourth-quarter of 2024 revenue beat by ~3% (up ~21% Y/Y), even against tougher comps, with broad-based strength in advertising and family of apps. Near the top of the list of investor concerns going into results were capex and depreciation trends, especially with the recent DeepSeek news. While questions continue to circle DeepSeek, there are a few concerns, especially regarding Llama 3.1 405B. DeepSeek V3 and Llama 3.1 were trained in under two months, but V3 is 66% larger than Llama and used 88% fewer Nvidia Corp NVDA AI accelerators. At a presumed rate of $2 per accelerator per hour, V3 costs $5.6 million, 14 times less than Llama. This continues to play into Schindler's concerns that he had written about since his initiation: Meta may have trouble containing costs and driving monetization through AI over the coming few years. While Meta needs to invest heavily to stay on top of technology, it's still too early to see if AI monetization will drive earnings growth. Truist Securities: Squali remains constructive on Meta following more substantial fourth-quarter results and a bullish 2025 outlook. The bullish outlook reflects ongoing improvements in ad performance from AI-driven recommendation & ranking algorithms fueling higher ad conversion and pricing; the upcoming launch of Llama 4 should power a growing roster of capabilities across Meta AI, commerce, and services; and sustained user growth and engagement built around Meta's extensive family of apps. While the race to AGI drives capital expenditure and operating expenditure materially higher than expected, Squali noted Meta has earned the right to invest. JP Morgan: Meta delivered strong fourth-quarter results, along with a more mixed outlook primarily due to higher expenses, and framed 2025 as a defining year for most key long-term initiatives. DeepSeek was a critical focus area for investors. While Meta does not have all the answers yet, management expects to be able to leverage DeepSeek's advances and emphasized that Meta's heavy investments in capex and infrastructure will be strategic advantages over time. Anmuth remained bullish on Meta AI's potential as it has considerable room to grow within Meta's 3.35B Family DAP and expects a wide range of e-commerce & services functionality to be added this year driven by Llama 4. RBC Capital: Meta's fourth quarter was good. The company beat and raised, laid out a host of new product and monetization drivers into 2026, and was compelling in defending and reiterating its ambitious AI spending plans given the recent DeepSeek controversy. Erickson raised his fiscal 2025-2027 estimates, introduced his 2028 estimates, and raised his price target. Valuation and bull case awareness levels are the primary nitpicks. Still, given the company's leading position in AI, broad opportunities to grow utility for its users, and differentiated optionality stemming from compute capacity, Erickson noted that only the most select group of companies might be as comprehensively well-prepared to fully or over-participate in the long-term adoption of AI. Goldman Sachs: Over the long term, Sheridan continues to see Meta as focused less on the forward 6-12 months and more on long-term opportunities with an increased focus on aligning investments across a world-class computing infrastructure, open-source software initiatives, and a raised range of forward capital expenditure. The analyst remains focused on increased levels of visibility into rates of investment and return profile on such investments as critical to a better understanding of the compounded earnings potential from 2025 through 2028. He sees Meta as well-positioned against several long-term secular growth themes. He is encouraged by the positive momentum across key product initiatives, including Reels, click-to-messaging Ads, AI, and Advantage+ adoption. DA Davidson: The rating reflected fourth-quarter earnings that beat top and bottom-line expectations. Meta's Family of Apps strengthened as the company continues to integrate AI into its products. Management expects 2025 to be a defining year for the company in relation to its AI ambitions, with Mark Zuckerberg highlighting several anticipated developments, including the release of Llama-4. BofA Securities: While earnings momentum will stall in 2025, Post noted Meta sent an upbeat tone on an "exciting product roadmap" for Meta AI, Llama, Meta Coding agent, and Meta AI glasses and an "opportunity to deliver strong revenue growth" without any real headwind warnings. Post noted that a higher multiple is justified as Meta's Al-driven ad improvements are still early. Meta is building considerable AI assets with an internal Al supercomputer, in-house LLM, and custom Al chips to leverage massive Facebook, Instagram, and messaging user pools. Morgan Stanley: Meta remains the cleanest GPU-enabled winner in the sector. It is investing more than expected, but revenue, engagement, and pipeline are all shining. The price target is unchanged, but the bull case rises to $900 as Nowak detailed revenue acceleration and a pipeline that could drive multiple expansions to the bull case. Price Action: META stock is up 2.40% at $692.71 at the last check Thursday. Also Read: Sirius XM Q4 Earnings Beats Estimates, CEO Highlights Focus On In-Car Subscriptions, Ad-Supported Growth Image via Shutterstock METAMeta Platforms Inc$691.452.21%Overview Rating:Speculative50%Technicals Analysis660100Financials Analysis400100WatchlistOverviewNVDANVIDIA Corp$122.41-1.04%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

US Stocks Likely To Open Lower Following Alphabet, AMD Earnings: Walt Disney, Uber, Ford, Qualcomm In Focus - Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD), Cognizant Tech Solns (NASDAQ:CTSH)

U.S. stock futures declined on Wednesday after Tuesday's advances amid trade war concerns and major earnings reports. Three benchmark indices were trading lower, whereas the gauge tracking small-cap stocks, Russell 2000 rose marginally. Walt Disney Co. DIS, Qualcomm Inc. QCOM, Uber Technologies Inc. UBER, and TotalEnergies SE TTE are a few major companies expected to report earnings today. The 10-year Treasury yield stood at 4.47%, while the two-year yield was at 4.19%. According to the CME Group's FedWatch tool, there is an 83.5% chance that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates unchanged for the March meeting. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF QQQ both experienced negative premarket trading on Wednesday. SPY fell 0.51% to $598.73, and QQQ declined 0.87% to $519.92, according to Benzinga Pro data. Cues From The Last Session Tech, Energy, and Communication Services sectors led U.S. stock gains Tuesday, despite geopolitical tensions and trade uncertainties. Utilities and consumer staples declined. Spotify Technology SA SPOT shares jumped 13% on strong earnings, while Palantir Technologies Inc. PLTR soared 24% on better-than-expected results. China retaliated against U.S. tariffs with restrictions on mineral exports and tariffs on energy products. Job openings fell to 7.6 million, below estimates, and factory orders declined 0.9%. Insights From Analysts According to the analysts at BlackRock, the recent artificial intelligence developments raise questions about AI investment and revenue. As markets learn about the ongoing transformation, BlackRock is using a framework as key for tracking big structural shifts, given a widening range of market outcomes. "We use our three-phase framework - buildout, adoption, transformation - to track AI," its note stated. Adding that "We see a broadening set of AI beneficiaries and stay overweight U.S. stocks." Talking about the tariffs, BlackRock opined, "This marks an escalation in trade protectionism, and we think that some level of tariffs is likely to remain in place over time. Uncertainty is high on how the trade dispute will play out on supply chains, growth and inflation." Highlighting that 80% of Mexico's exports and 70% of Canadian exports come to the U.S., the VP and global macro strategist at Carson Research, Sonu Varghese said "This asymmetric dependency is perhaps what Trump is hoping to leverage -- to get them both at the table, and extract concessions." According to Varghese, China's economy is becoming less reliant on trade, with trade now accounting for less than 40% of its economy, down from 60% two decades ago. Trade with the U.S. has also decreased, especially in areas affected by tariffs in 2018-2019. However, China has circumvented these tariffs by increasing trade with other countries. China's share of global trade has increased since 2016. "This means the U.S. has much less leverage over China, relative to Canada and Mexico. But this is why there is a possibility of seeing universal tariffs," to prevent China from circumventing them, he added. Upcoming Economic Data Here's what investors will keep an eye on Wednesday: January's ADP employment data will be out at 8:15 a.m., and December's U.S. trade deficit data will be released at 8:30 a.m., ET. Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin will speak at 9:00 a.m., ET. January's S&P final U.S. services PMI will be announced at 9:45 a.m. and ISM services data will be out by 10:00 a.m., ET. Chicago Fed President Goolsbee will speak at 1:00 p.m., Fed Governor Michelle Bowman will speak at 3:00 p.m., and Fed Vice Chairman Philip Jefferson will speak again at 7:30 p.m., ET. Stocks In Focus: Walt Disney Co. DIS was down 0.05% in the premarket on Wednesday ahead of its earnings before the opening bell. Analysts expect it to report quarterly earnings of $1.45 per share on revenue of $24.62 billion. Uber Technologies Inc. UBER rose 0.19% as Wall Street expects it to report quarterly earnings of 50 cents per share on revenue of $11.77 billion before the opening bell. Ford Motor Co. F declined 0.1% as it is expected to report earnings after market closes. According to Benzinga's consensus estimates, the company is expected to report earnings of 33 cents per share on revenue of $43.25 billion. Alphabet Inc. GOOG was down 6.95% as it reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings, while sales missed estimates. Google Cloud revenue was up 30% year-over-year to $12 billion. Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD slipped 8.49% after the underperformance of its highly anticipated data center business. Whereas fourth quarter earnings and sales were upbeat. Qualcomm Inc. QCOM dropped 0.37%, TotalEnergies SE TTE gained 1.49%, MicroStrategy Inc. MSTR fell 1.22% and Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. CTSH was up 0.01% ahead of its earnings today. Commodities, Gold And Global Equity Markets: Crude oil futures were trading lower in the early New York session by 1.02% to hover around $71.96 per barrel. The gold spot index was up by 1.04% to $2,871.52 per ounce. The Dollar Index was down 0.38% at 107.545 level. Asian markets were mixed on Wednesday as China's CSI 300, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index declined. Whereas, Australia's ASX 200, South Korea's Kospi, and Japan's Nikkei 225 index advanced. European markets were mostly lower in trade. Read Next: Trump Media Or Trump Coin: Where Have Investors Lost More Money Since The 47th President Entered The White House? Photo courtesy: Shutterstock AMDAdvanced Micro Devices Inc$109.34-8.50%Overview Rating:Speculative37.5%Technicals Analysis660100Financials Analysis200100WatchlistOverviewCTSHCognizant Technology Solutions Corp$83.700.19%DISThe Walt Disney Co$113.30-%FFord Motor Co$10.190.30%GOOGAlphabet Inc$193.55-6.82%MSTRMicroStrategy Inc$344.38-1.13%PLTRPalantir Technologies Inc$102.60-1.18%QCOMQualcomm Inc$171.81-0.71%QQQInvesco QQQ Trust, Series 1$520.10-0.83%SPOTSpotify Technology SA$619.01-0.44%SPYSPDR S&P 500$598.79-0.50%TTETotalEnergies SE$60.111.55%UBERUber Technologies Inc$70.541.13%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs