A Good Day for US Auto Stocks

A Good Day for US Auto Stocks 

President Donald Trump has announced a temporary exemption for carmakers from the new 25% import tax on Canada and Mexico, a day after the latest raft of tariffs took effect. The exemption applies to North American-made cars that meet the region’s free trade agreement rules. Ford [F] was up 5% on the news, while General Motors [GM] rose by more than 7% and Stellantis [STLA] by more than 9%, the BBC noted.

Semiconductor Takeover in the Offing?

ON Semiconductor [ON] has gone public with a $6.9bn bid for Allegro Microsystems [ALGM]. Allegro rejected the proposal as “inadequate” but the move puts pressure on Allegro’s shareholders, Bloomberg observed, in an echo of Broadcom’s [AVGO] 2017 play for Qualcomm [QCOM]. Allegro’s stock surged 13% premarket, while ON stock dropped 3.6%. 

Great Timing from Baidu

The China tech giant [BIDU] has raised $1.4bn in a debt sale that closed on Wednesday, Bloomberg reported, capitalizing on China’s artificial intelligence-driven (AI) tech rally. Investor appetite, fueled by DeepSeek’s recent breakthrough and Beijing’s pro-innovation stance, helped Baidu secure 2.7% and 3% coupon rates — both lower than Alibaba’s [BABA] issuance four months ago. 

Cathie Wood’s ARK: 13F Round-Up

The ARK Innovation ETF [ARKK] surged more than 30% following the election of Donald Trump, but finished off 2024 with returns of 8.94%. The fund’s Q4 2024 13F filing saw a number of newcomers, including Illumina [ILMN], while Cathie Wood cut shares in pandemic-era winners including Moderna [MRNA]. OPTO examines if 2025 is off to a strong start for the innovative fund.

UK Watchdog (Grudgingly) Approves OpenAI Deal

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has closed its investigation into Microsoft’s [MSFT] partnership with OpenAI, ruling that, despite the fact the former “exerts a high level of material influence” over the latter, it does not fully control it, so the deal is not subject to merger rules. The probe was initially opened after OpenAI’s leadership turmoil in December 2023. 

MSFT Steps Back from CoreWeave

Elsewhere, Microsoft has backed out of some commitments with cloud provider CoreWeave, raising concerns ahead of CoreWeave’s planned $35bn IPO. The tech giant cited delivery issues and missed deadlines but retains key contracts. Microsoft is CoreWeave’s largest customer. CoreWeave, which supplies AI computing power for OpenAI’s ChatGPT, aims to raise $4bn in what could be 2025’s biggest tech IPO.

SPOT Stock: Did You Miss the Boat?

Spotify [SPOT] has surged over 200% since early 2024, Morningstar has detailed. Cost-cutting and subscriber growth fueled the turnaround, but it might now be running out of steam. “A huge rally was warranted, but we’d now say the rally is overdone,” said Morningstar equity analyst Matthew Dolgin. Before you make your own mind up, read OPTO’s recent breakdown of Spotify stock.