Good Evening! On Monday, US stocks rose, mostly driven by a significant surge in technology companies. This surge comes as Wall Street tries to recover from a challenging August so far.
The Dow Jones barely finished above the opening by 0.07%, while the S&P 500 rose by 0.58%. The Nasdaq Composite saw the most gains, ending the day up 1.05%.
FIRE HAZARD
Nikola Corporation (NKLA) saw a significant decline following the company’s announcement of a voluntary recall encompassing all 209 of its battery-electric trucks. This recall was initiated in response to a reported fire hazard associated with these vehicles.
Park outside, please! Nikola has announced its intention to temporarily suspend the sales of its Class 8 Tre battery electric trucks until a solution is found. For the trucks that continue to be in service, the company recommends storing the vehicles outside. Nikola disclosed that a mere two battery packs, out of the extensive production of over 3,100 packs installed on trucks so far, had encountered a “thermal event.”
What caused it? Nikola expressed suspicions of “foul play”, but the investigation conducted by the Phoenix Fire Department yielded no proof of arson. Similarly, Nikola’s external investigator arrived at the same conclusion. The researcher determined that a coolant leak inside a single battery pack was the likely factor contributing to the truck fire. The technical teams at Nikola have identified a component supplied by a single supplier inside the battery pack as the root cause of the coolant leak.
NETFLIX IS PLAYING GAMES
Netflix (NFLX) made an announcement about the initiation of a trial for its video game streaming services. The move positions the company for a future battle with Microsoft (MSFT) and Sony (SONY) in the emerging cloud gaming sector.
A quick rundown on cloud gaming! Cloud gaming enables players to access and stream video games from company servers, hence enabling direct gameplay on a variety of devices such as televisions, laptops, desktop computers, smartphones, and tablets. Due to the use of servers for graphics processing, gamers are afforded the opportunity to engage in gameplay on devices that are often considered to have limited computing power. On top of that, this eliminates the need for substantial financial investments in high-performance gaming computers or consoles.
Why move into the cloud? The current state of cloud gaming is defined by its young development, although many companies are strategically prioritizing its integration within their gaming portfolios for future growth and success. One of the motivations for Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard is to expand and enhance its cloud services.