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What to Watch Today: Dow Futures Pop on Walmart and Home Depot Strength

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BY THE NUMBERS

The Dow was set to rise nearly 100 points Tuesday, supported by gains in Walmart (WMT)and Home Depot (HD), two of the components in the 30-stock average. Tech stocks recovered in the premarket a day after they led Wall Street lower amid worries about last week's inflation report. (CNBC)

Walmart's first-quarter earnings surged past estimates on strong grocery sales and e-commerce growth. The retailer said more shoppers headed to its stores and website to spend stimulus checks. Per-share profit was $1.69. Revenue grew by nearly 3% to $138.31 billion. Walmart raised its outlook for the year. (CNBC)

Home Depot beat first-quarter earnings and revenue expectations as consumers' splurging on their homes lingered more than a year into the pandemic. Net sales rose nearly 33% to $37.5 billion. Per-share profit was $3.86. Home Depot has not released an outlook for fiscal 2021. (CNBC)

IN THE NEWS TODAY

Amazon (AMZN), looking to beef up its video library, is in talks to buy the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in a deal worth as much as $9 billion, according to multiple media reports. These talks, first reported by The Information, surfaced after AT&T agreed to break out its WarnerMedia movie and TV unit in a merger with Discovery.

* WarnerMedia-Discovery deal puts pressure on ViacomCBS and NBCUniversal (CNBC)
* Cramer: AT&T's WarnerMedia spinoff ends 'one of the dumbest mergers in recent history' (CNBC)

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.a) made several changes to its stock portfolio last quarter, including adding a new bet on U.K. insurance company Aon (AON) and increasing its stake in Kroger (KR), a new regulatory filing showed. Berkshire also added to its relatively new Verizon (VZ) position and cut its stake in Chevron (CVX), another new bet. (CNBC Pro)

The investor Michael Burry on Monday revealed in a regulatory filing a short position against Tesla worth more than half a billion dollars. Burry, whose firm is Scion Asset Management, shot to fame by betting against mortgage securities before the 2008 financial crisis. Burry was depicted in Michael Lewis' book "The Big Short" and the subsequent Oscar-winning movie of the same name. (CNBC)

* What 'regulatory credits' are, and why they're so important to Tesla (CNBC)

Electric vehicle start-up Fisker (FSR) does not plan to invest in bitcoin or it as payment, according to founder Henrik Fisker. The CEO said bitcoin is not "sustainable," echoing environmental concerns raised last week by Tesla's Elon Musk due to concerns over the use of fossil fuels for bitcoin mining. (CNBC)

Fisker lost 11 cents per share in the first quarter, less than the 19-cent loss expected by analysts. The company did not have any revenue during the quarter, as expected, but the stock came under pressure after Fisker left its capital spending forecast unchanged for the year. (CNBC)

* Lamborghini announces plan for a fully-electric car by 2030 (CNBC)

Former Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller testified that Apple does reduce its App Store fees for certain companies from 30% to 15% in exchange for them supporting Apple's TV app and other Apple features such as Siri. Schiller appeared on the stand as part of a lawsuit by "Fortnite" maker Epic Games. (CNBC)

* Apple to call CEO Tim Cook to testify in Epic Games case (WSJ)

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden earned $607,336 in 2020, according to their newly released tax return, a significant drop from their 2019 income that reflects Joe Biden's singular focus on campaigning for president last year. (CNBC)

STOCKS TO WATCH

Shares of Macy's jumped roughly 5% in Tuesday's premarket, shortly after the department store chain reported a surprise first-quarter profit, as stimulus checks and the vaccine rollout gave consumers more money and greater confidence to head back to the mall and refresh their wardrobes. Better-than-expected Q1 revenue soared 56% to $4.71 billion. Macy's also hiked its financial outlook for the full year.

Toyota (TM) stock hit a record high in Japanese market trading, surpassing the previous record set in 2015. Toyota has regained favor with investors, after forecasting a return to pre-pandemic profitability levels and dealing successfully with the global semiconductor shortage.

Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) reported better-than-expected profit and sales for its latest quarter, thanks to growth in subscribership and improved ad revenue for its music streaming platform.

Eastman Kodak (KODK) could be hit with an insider trading lawsuit by New York State Attorney General Letitia James, according to Reuters. The case involves stock purchases made by Kodak's CEO ahead of the announcement of a $765 million drug ingredients deal with the U.S. government. Kodak shares fell 1.9% in premarket trading.

Twilio (TWLO) added 1.5% in premarket action after it struck a deal to buy business text messaging company Zipwhip for about $850 million in cash and stock. Zipwhip will become part of the cloud computing company's Messaging Business unit.

Canadian National Railway (CNI) hit a procedural snag in its bid to buy U.S. rail operator Kansas City Southern (KSU). The U.S. Surface Transportation rejected Canadian National's submission because it did not include a detailed merger agreement. Canadian National said it would resubmit its plan. Canadian National added 1.4% in premarket trading.

Disclosure: Comcast is the owner of NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.

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