Chapter 1: Why are stock index futures tumbling?
Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Breakfast, where we cover the top news for investors every morning. It's always good to be with you. Today is Tuesday, the 3rd of March. I'm Julie Morgan. Futures are sharply lower before the opening bell, with weakness in tech weighing heavily on markets, with chip stocks taking a significant hit following a plunge in South Korea's KOSPI index.
NASDAQ 100 futures are down 2.3%, leading the declines. S&P 500 futures dropped 1.7%, and Dow futures are down 1.6%. In Korean trading, Samsung plunged nearly 10%, and SK Hynix sank 11.5%. The chip stocks are Kospi's biggest components and have led the index on a rally up more than 50% year-to-date before today's plunge.
The tech sector looked weak after MongoDB shares crashed in pre-market trade, following the company's mixed guidance compared to Wall Street's forecast. Traders also continue to monitor developments in the Middle East amid the ongoing U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict. We'll take a look at one of the stocks on the biggest movers list in just a few minutes.
Amazon Web Services said that ongoing Middle East conflict has physically damaged infrastructure in its UAE and Bahrain regions after drone strikes hit or struck near multiple facilities, causing structural damage and power disruptions. The company said that in some cases firefighting efforts were necessary.
Chapter 2: What impact did drone strikes have on AWS infrastructure?
which resulted in additional water damage. In the UAE, two of three availability zones are significantly impaired. The third zone is operating normally, but some services have been indirectly impacted due to the dependencies on the affected zones. In the Bahrain region, one facility has been impacted.
Customers across both regions are experiencing elevated error rates and degraded availability for some services. AWS said it is working to fully restore service as quickly as possible, though it expects recovery to be prolonged given the nature of the damage. OpenAI said that the company should not have rushed its recent deal with the U.S. Department of Defense.
CEO Sam Altman made the remarks after striking a deal with the DOD on Friday and just hours after the White House instructed federal agencies to stop using Anthropic. In a post on X, Altman said OpenAI would amend the contract to include some new language and including that the AI system should not be intentionally used for domestic surveillance of U.S. persons and nationals.
He added that the Defense Department affirmed that OpenAI's tools would not be used by intelligence agencies such as the NSA. Altman said they were genuinely trying to de-escalate things and avoid a much worse outcome, but now he thinks it just looked opportunistic and sloppy.
Anthropic signed a $200 million contract with the United States Department of Defense in July, becoming the first lab to deploy its models and mission workflows on classified networks. Rivals OpenAI, Google, and XAI also received DoD awards worth up to $200 million last year. Now for a look at a few other articles that are trending. Paramount's debt is cut to junk status after the Warner Bros.
deal. President Trump criticizes Starmer and says U.S.-U.K. ties are not like it used to be amid a dispute over what's happening in the Middle East. And MongoDB crashes amid mixed guidance and an executive shakeup. I have one item to tell you about on our Catalyst Watch for the day. The four-day ConExpo CONACT conference will begin in Las Vegas.
The conference is considered the key international gathering for the construction, aggregates, and ready-mix concrete industries. Widely regarded as the premier international event for the sector, the once-every-three-year gathering also provides a meaningful boost in visitor traffic for major strip operators including MGM Resorts, Caesar Entertainment, and Wynn Resorts.
On Wall Street, the numbers we haven't talked about, crude oil is up 7% at $76 a barrel, Bitcoin is down 2.8% at $66,000, and gold is down 1.3% at $52.53. The FTSE 100 is down 2.7% and the DAX is down 3.7%. And India's market was closed today for a holiday. Plug Power is on our list of the biggest movers of the day pre-market.
Plug is up 10% after a Q4 earnings beat, highlighted 13% year-over-year revenue growth, and a dramatic gross margin improvement. And on today's economic calendar, I have one item for you at 8 a.m. Motor Vehicle Sales. That's it for today's Wall Street Breakfast. Thanks for listening. For a full offering of news, analysis, ratings, and data on stocks and ETFs, become a premium subscriber.
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