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Nike's (NKE) stock was among the S&P 500's best performers after an analyst at Bernstein Research reiterated a "buy" rating for the stock along with a $112 price target.

Shares of the company traded about 5% higher late Tuesday, changing hands around $78. That gain, however, still leaves the stock down more than 16% from its June 27 close just before it reported disappointing fiscal fourth-quarter results — and it's down nearly 30% this year.

Bernstein’s Aneesha Sherman is bullish on Nike: Her $112 target is higher than any of the 20 analysts tracked by Visible Alpha. (That list doesn't include Bernstein.) Of those 20, half have "buy" ratings for the sports apparel giant. 

“There is a big lag in when you start working on things like innovation or regaining distribution and when the numbers actually start to show up,” Sherman said of Nike in an interview with CNBC last month.

Nike has "been hiring and investing in R&D and putting more marketing dollars behind some of their launches and rebuilding partnerships with retailers and we are in the trough where we haven’t seen any of that impacting sales yet," Sherman said. "As soon as we start to see some of that brand momentum working and their efforts paying off, the stock is poised to rebound."

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Ordering snacks to munch on while watching "House of the Dragon" just got easier.

DoorDash (DASH) has partnered with struggling entertainment conglomerate Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) to make the Max streaming service available to its premium DashPass customers.

Max (with ads) is now included with a DashPass annual plan, which costs $96 per year. That's cheaper than ad-free Max normally costs by itself. Customers can upgrade to ad-free Max for $10.99 per month. 

Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery climbed nearly 5% to $7.02 as of 2:30 p.m. ET Tuesday but the stock is down about 40% this year and hit its lowest level since 2009 on Monday. DoorDash stock rose almost 3% to $127.47. 

Last week, WBD reported an almost $10 billion second-quarter loss, hit by a write-down in the value of its cable networks. A $9.1 billion non-cash goodwill impairment charge from its cable networks segment made clear that flagship networks like CNN and TNT continue to be disrupted by streaming services.

The company was also rebuffed by the NBA when it matched Amazon's (AMZN) reported bid of $1.8 billion a year for the right to broadcast a package of games as part of a new 11-year, $77 billion media rights deal. The NBA instead chose Amazon's Prime Video, which boasts about 200 million monthly viewers, roughly double the number of WBD streaming customers.

On Tuesday, Bernstein analyst Laurent Yoon dropped his rating for WBD to "market-perform" from "neutral," and slashed his price target to $8 from $10.

The partnership marks the latest collaboration between food-delivery services and streamers.

Instacart (CART) last year started providing Peacock, a unit of Comcast's (CMCSA) NBCUniversal for free to its paying Instacart+ subscribers in the U.S. In May, Amazon announced that it was offering its Prime members a free Grubhub+ membership worth $120 a year to win over consumers to its loyalty program.

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Shares of Baxter International (BAX) fell Tuesday after the company said it would sell its kidney treatment division to The Carlyle Group (CG) for $3.8 billion in cash.

The deal is expected to generate roughly $3 billion in after-tax proceeds and close by early 2025. Baxter said it plans to use the proceeds to reduce its debt. 

Baxter shares were recently down more than 7%, making them one of the S&P 500's top decliners and extending the shares' year-to-date retreat to aroune 12%. Carlyle shares rose less than 1%.Carlyle’s investment in the kidney care company is done in partnership with Atmas Health. The unit will be named Vantive following the transaction.  

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The Nigerian House of Representatives has introduced the Counter Subversion Bill 2024, which aims to impose stringent penalties on individuals involved in separatist agitations or actions that incite inter-group or sectional conflicts.

According to the proposed legislation, anyone convicted of such offences could face a prison sentence of up to 25 years, a fine of N10 million, or both, The Sun reports. The bill’s explanatory memoranda state that the legislation seeks to criminalise subversive activities by a wide range of groups, including associations, organisations, militias, cults, bandits, and other proscribed entities.

Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Sunday Igboho have agitated for the separate nations of Biafra and Oduduwa/Yoruba respectively. The Bill, sponsored by Speaker Tajudeen Abbas, is set for its second reading, where its general principles will be debated.

The Bill stipulates that anyone found guilty of destr%ying national symbols, refusing to recite the national anthem and pledge, defacing a place of worship with intent to incite vi3lence, or undermining the Federal Government shall face a fine of N5 million, a 10-year prison sentence, or both.

Meanwhile, it states that anyone who sets up an illegal roadblock, performs unauthorised traffic duties, imposes an illegal curfew, or organises an unlawful procession will be subject to a fine of N2 million, five years in prison, or both upon conviction. However, the Bill imposes a fine of N4 million or a two-year prison sentence for anyone convicted of insulting, defaming, embarrassing, or bringing into disrepute the leadership of a community, religion, lawful group, local government, state, or federal government.

Sections 2, 5, 6, and 10 of the proposed legislation further state that any person who engages in activities that foster mutual suspicion, mistrust, or intolerance, leading to conflict and vilence that thr3atens Nigeria’s corporate existence, peace, and security, commits an offense and is liable to a fine of N5 million, a 10-year prison term, or both.

“A person who forcefully takes over any place of worship, town hall, school, premises, public or private place, arena, or a similar place through duress, undue influence, subterfuge or other similar activities, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of N5 million or imprisonment for a term of 10 years or both.

“A person who professes loyalty, pledges or agrees to belong to an organisation that disregards the sovereignty of Nigeria, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of N3 million or imprisonment for a term of four years or both.

“A person who receives financial or political support from a foreign organisation, group or country that is not compatible with the interest, development, security and progress of Nigeria, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of N15 million or imprisonment for a term of 20 years or both.”

Sections 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, and 20 of the bill stipulate that any individual, group, or organisation involved in activities that undermine national security, disrupt community harmony, disturb peaceful coexistence, or impede law and order will be deemed to have committed an offense. Upon conviction, the penalty is a fine of N3 million, imprisonment for up to five years, or both.

The bill further reads, “A person, group or organisation that persistently disregards, disobeys, or disrespects constituted authority, rules, regulations, order or contravenes the law wilfully, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to three years imprisonment at the first instance, and seven years for a subsequent offence or to a fine of N5 million or both.

“A person who habitually violates the law, refuses or prevents arrest, disrupts legal processes or proceedings, engages in contrary behaviour or persistent and recalcitrant, defiance and rebellion against constituted authority, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of N5 million or seven years imprisonment or both.

“A person who establishes, creates, operates or maintains, funds, supports or assists a paramilitary group, guard, brigade, organisation, corps, union, militia, cult or bandit group under whatever name or guise, except established by laws passed by the National Assembly or State House of Assembly, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of N10 million or 15 years imprisonment or both.”

Sections 17 and 20 stipulate that any individual who unlawfully constructs a structure on or occupies a public place, road, or field without authorisation from the relevant authorities commits an offence. Upon conviction, the individual is liable to a fine of N1 million, imprisonment for up to three years, or both.

“A person, who owns, possesses, produces, distributes, imports, handles, uses military, police or intelligence agency’s uniforms, emblems or accoutrements, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of N2 million or imprisonment for a term of two years or both,” it reads.

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Shares in Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) will be in focus on Tuesday as the search giant’s highly anticipated annual Made By Google launch event gets underway, where analysts expect the company to unveil its next generation smartphones and provide further details about how it plans to integrate its Gemini artificial intelligence (AI) model into its mobile platforms.

The event comes at an opportune time for the Magnificent Seven member, helping it shift focus from a turbulent month that has seen its shares tumble 15% from their July 10 record close, weighed down by a sector-wide sell-off in technology stocks and an unfavorable ruling by a U.S. federal judge that Google had violated antitrust law.

Below, we take a closer look at Alphabet’s chart and use technical analysis to locate important levels to watch out for amid the potential for ongoing volatility in the stock price.

Following the 50-day moving average (MA) crossing above the 200-day MA to form a bullish golden cross signal in May last year, Alphabet shares trended consistently higher until topping out after setting a record high in early July this year.

Since that time, the price has fallen as much as 19%, sending the stock firmly into correction territory—typically regarded as a fall of at least 10% from a recent high.

Amid the potential for volatile price swings in either direction in Alphabet shares, investors should eye the following important support and resistance levels.

A move lower may initially find support around $154, where a trendline links the January swing high and a period of April price consolidation, with last week’s sell-off low and the upward sloping 200-day MA also sitting close by.

Selling below this level opens the door to the shares revisiting $141, a location on the chart where market participants may look for buying opportunities near a horizontal line connecting multiple peaks and troughs between October and February.

The first resistance level to watch sits at $175, just below the falling 50-day MA, where sellers could look to offload shares near the April 26. gap high, which also closely aligns with a range of similar trading levels throughout May and June. 

Reclaiming this area could lead to a retest of the $191 region, a level on the chart likely to encounter significant selling pressure around Alphabet’s all-time high (ATH). A move back to this area would represent a rally of about 18% from Monday’s closing price.

Alphabet shares were up 0.4% at $162.85 in premarket trading at around 7:00 a.m. ET.

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An influencer has revealed another form of affection that might not be acceptable to Nigerians.

He said, it’s another form of affection deciding to get another woman pregnant instead of your woman, cos you don’t want her to experience the pain of childbirth.

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