 Alibaba Group and Ant Group co-founder, Jack Ma | Image: Bloomberg Alibaba’s Hong Kong-listed shares fell over 9% on Tuesday after Chinese state media reported that an individual with the last name “Ma” had been detained over suspicion of using the internet to endanger national security. The Global Times, a Chinese state-backed tabloid, also reported that the person being investigated by the Hangzhou security bureau is the director of a tech company’s hardware research and development department. More: - News of the arrest sparked concerns for Alibaba Group co-founder Jack Ma, who has in the past been in the Chinese government's crosshairs.
- Alibaba and Ant Group, a financial services company also founded by Jack Ma, are headquartered in Hangzhou, China.
- In an amended report, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV noted that the individual detained was not Alibaba’s Jack Ma.
- People familiar with the situation also confirmed Jack Ma was not the person referred to in the report.
- The selloff on Tuesday wiped about $26B from Alibaba’s market cap.
- Following the updated report, the stock recovered, closing the session down 2%.
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Pfizer released its Q1 2022 earnings on Tuesday, beating analysts’ expectations across the board. The pharmaceutical company reported revenue of $25.7B, up 77% YoY, driven by sales of its COVID-19 vaccine and new oral antiviral drug Paxlovid. The FDA approved Paxlovid in December, and according to CEO Albert Bourla, the medication has received regulatory authorization in more than 60 countries. Net income came in at $7.9B, up 61% YoY, and adjusted diluted EPS was $1.62, up 72% YoY. More: - Pfizer reported $13.2B in covid vaccine sales and $1.5B in Paxlovid sales in Q1.
- The company expects to produce 30 million courses of Paxlovid by H1 2022 and 120 million by the end of the year.
- In adult clinical trials, Paxlovid reduced the risk of hospitalization or death from COVID by 90%.
- Pfizer is still expecting $98B to $102B in total sales for 2022 but lowered its expectations for adjusted diluted EPS for the year.
- Pfizer is now expecting EPS of $6.25 to $6.45 for 2022, down from $6.35 to $6.55 previously stated.
- Pfizer expects to sell $32B of its COVID vaccine and $22B of Paxlovid in 2022.
- Pfizer shares closed at $49.29, up ~2% for the day.
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 Image: AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images Paramount Global, the parent of CBS, Nickelodeon, the Paramount movie studio, and the Paramount+ streaming platform, released its Q1 2022 earnings on Tuesday. The company added 6.8 million subscribers to Paramount+ in Q1, bringing its subscriber total to ~40 million. The company changed its name from ViacomCBS to Paramount Global in February. More: - Q1 revenue was $7.3B, down ~1% YoY.
- Net income came in at $433M, down 52% YoY, or 64 cents a share.
- Direct-to-Consumer revenue was ~$1.1B, up 82% YoY.
- TV Media revenue was $5.6B, down 6% YoY.
- Filmed Entertainment reported $624M in revenue, down 27% YoY.
- The company plans to launch its streaming platform in India in 2023 through a joint venture with Viacom18.
- Paramount shares closed at $9.55, up ~2% for the day.
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Citigroup’s London trading desk took responsibility for the flash crash in European markets on Monday. Trading was temporarily halted in several markets just before 8 a.m. London time after several European stocks suddenly plummeted. According to Citigroup, a trader made a mistake inputting a transaction, leading to a massive selloff in Swedish stocks. The bank said it identified the error within minutes and corrected it. More: - Europe’s main index, Stoxx 600, dropped as much as 3%, wiping out about 300B euros ($315B) from the market.
- Sweden’s Stockholm OMX 30 index fell as much as 8% during the crash before recovering to close the session down 1.9%
- According to people familiar with the matter, Citigroup is in talks with exchanges and regulators about Monday’s incident.
- A flash crash refers to a sudden drop in a market or stock’s price followed by a quick recovery, usually within the same day.
- It is often caused by a trading mistake or human error.
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 Desi Ujkashevic | Image: Eric Thayer/Bloomberg Apple has hired Ford’s global director of automotive safety engineering, Desi Ujkashevic, signaling plans to develop its electric autonomous vehicle project. Ujkashevic has worked at Ford since 1991, overseeing the engineering of various parts of different Ford models. She helped develop the automaker’s new electric vehicles and has experience dealing with regulatory issues. More: - Apple’s electric, self-driving car project dubbed Titan has suffered multiple setbacks since its launch in 2014.
- Last year the head of Apple’s car project, Doug Field, left the company to join Ford as chief advanced technology and embedded systems officer.
- Apple also lost key managers in charge of hardware engineering, robotics, and sensors for the project.
- The company is aiming to announce a car product by 2025.
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British Petroleum released its Q1 2022 earnings on Tuesday, reporting a $25.5B hit related to its Russia exit. The oil and gas giant reported an underlying replacement cost profit of $6.2B, up from $2.6B reported in Q1 2021 and up from $4.1B reported last quarter. BP reported a headline loss of $20.4B, which includes non-cash pre-tax charges of $24B and $1.5B related to the exit of its ~20% stake in Rosneft following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. More: - Net debt fell to $27.5B in the quarter, and capital expenditure was $2.9B.
- The company said it would continue to reduce debt and plans to spend between $14B to $15B in capital expenditures for 2022.
- The company bought back $1.6B of its shares in Q1 and announced plans to buy back another $2.5B.
- BP announced a dividend of $5.46 per share payable in June 2022.
- BP shares closed up 2.9% on Tuesday in London.
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- The Supreme Court on Tuesday confirmed the authenticity of a leaked draft opinion from the court that would overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has ordered an investigation into the source of the leak.
- Online pharmacy Truepill announced it would temporarily halt all fulfillment of Schedule 2 substances such as Adderall and other controlled substances used to treat ADHD “out of an abundance of caution.”
- Former President Donald Trump lost a bid to stay a contempt of court order from a New York judge, meaning he would still owe a fine of $10,000 a day for not complying with a subpoena to turn over records from the Trump Organization.
- Biogen, the company behind controversial Alzheimer’s disease drug Aduhelm, announced its CEO, Michel Vounatsos, will step down. Biogen said it would also cut the sales infrastructure it built to support Aduhelm’s launch, saving the company $500M a year.
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 |  | Vanessa Omeokachie is a Researcher at Inside. Her interests include finance, tech, and startups. In her free time, she enjoys reading, hiking, attending music festivals, and traveling. Connect with her on Twitter @VanessaOmeo or through email at vanessa@inside.com |  | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 Ford. | |
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