Top US Stocks to Watch This Week DiDi and Amazon

Didi

Didi warned that its ride-hailing app has been removed from stores in China for violating data laws and that it is one of a number of companies being investigated by the country’s cybersecurity regulator less than a week after completing its blockbuster IPO in the US.

The company, which raised $4.4 billion last Wednesday in the biggest listing in the US by a Chinese firm since Alibaba in 2014, said its app could no longer be downloaded in China because it ‘had the problem of collecting personal information in violation of relevant PRC laws and regulations’. Existing users can keep using the app, but it means it can’t acquire any new users in the meantime. Didi said it was working to rectify the issue but admitted it ‘may have an adverse impact on its revenue in China’.

Separately, Didi said it is one of a number of companies subject to a review of cybersecurity by China’s Cyberspace Administration Office, which has been launched against several companies that have decided to list in the US including Zhipin.com, owned by Kanzhun, and Full Truck Alliance. Didi said it was not aware of the matters before launching its IPO.

You can read about Didi and its IPO here.

Amazon

Jeff Bezos formally steps down as the chief executive of Amazon today, 27 years after he founded the company as an online bookstore before turning it into the sprawling business it is today.

Andy Jassy, who previously led the company’s cloud-computing business Amazon Web Services, takes over as CEO today but Bezos will still be involved by transitioning to the position of chairman. Bezos is leaving to put more effort into his other ventures, including the Bezos Earth Fund, his spaceship company Blue Origin, The Washington Post, and the Amazon Day 1 Fund. 

Jassy is also an Amazon veteran that has been with the business since 1997. He has been leading AWS since 2016 and has overseen huge growth to make it one of the largest companies in the industry. This has led to theories that Jassy will focus on advancing Amazon’s digital capabilities and cloud-computing venture over its traditional levers in ecommerce and advertising.

You can read more about Andy Jassy here.

Vaccine stocks

South Korea is talking to a number of vaccine companies including Pfizer and Moderna about producing jabs domestically by offering them enough capacity to make up to 1 billion doses, according to reports from Reuters.

The country has already struck deals with the likes of AstraZeneca and Novavax to make more vaccines inside the country but is keen to boost supplies further and become a major vaccine producer. The report said it was not clear how advanced the talks were or how likely a deal was to be agreed.

Credit Suisse

Credit Suisse said Joanne Hannaford will become the Swiss bank’s new chief technology and operations officer at the start of 2022.

Hannaford will be responsible for driving the bank’s digital strategy and is joining from Goldman Sachs, where she held numerous senior roles at Goldman Sachs Engineering in London and New York.  

Current chief operating officer James Walker will become the deputy CEO of its US business when Hannaford starts and is moving there for family reasons. Hannaford will be based in Zurich and report to Credit Suisse’s chief executive Thomas Gottstein.

Tesla

Tesla on Friday said it delivered a record number of cars during the second quarter, shipping over 200,000 vehicles to customers despite ongoing challenges in the supply chain.

Sales of the Model 3 and Model Y drove deliveries of 201,250 units in the quarter. That is a significant improvement from the 185,000 delivered in the first quarter and keeps Tesla on course to deliver around 865,000 cars this year as a whole.