- Microsoft was hit with a networking outage that took down its cloud platform Azure along with services such as Teams and Outlook, potentially affecting millions of users globally. An Azure outage can impact a variety of services and create a domino effect as almost all of the world’s largest companies use the platform.
- Earnings from major European companies offered some reasons for optimism about the region’s corporate health, even as investors worry about the slowing global economy. Fourth-quarter earnings from ASML exceeded expectations and the Dutch technology company, Europe’s largest, forecast a rise of more than 25% in 2023 sales.
- A glitch at the New York Stock Exchange prevented the opening auctions for a slew of stocks, prompting widespread trading halts, confusion over whether orders were being filled at correct prices, and trades in more than 250 securities being busted.
- Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk testified that he expected strong financial support when he tweeted that he would take the electric car maker private in 2018, but admitted he lacked specific commitments from potential backers.
- Rupert Murdoch withdrew a proposal to reunite News Corp and Fox Corp as the company is also exploring a sale of Move, which operates the Realtor.com website, to CoStar Group. Several top shareholders had publicly said they opposed the proposed Fox-News Corp combination.
- Hindenburg Research said it held short positions in Adani Group, accusing the Indian conglomerate of improper extensive use of entities set up in offshore tax havens and expressing concern about high debt levels. The group is led by Gautam Adani, the world’s third richest man according to Forbes.
