TOP 5 STOCKS TO WATCHOUT:-

1.Volkswagen:  Volkswagen  expects a shortage in semiconductor supply to ease in the third quarter but sees the bottlenecks continuing in the long-term, a board member told Handelsblatt newspaper.

“At the moment we have reached the lowest point. We are facing the toughest six weeks,” Murat Aksel, the head of procurement on the Volkswagen board, told the newspaper in an interview.

He said he expects around 10% shortage in chips over the long-term as building up production capacities takes up to two years.

Volkswagen will prepare for the bottlenecks by expanding its chips storage and is currently classifying the supply risk of its all models components, he added.

Automakers and electronics producers around the world are being hit hard by manufacturing delays of chips, caused by a global shortfall.

Volkswagen AG  has been unable to build 100,000 cars due to the shortage, CEO Herbert Diess said in March, adding the group would not be able to make up for the shortfall in 2021.

2.General Motors  -General Motors on Wednesday threw its support behind the overall emissions reductions in California’s 2019 deal with other major automakers, but asked the Biden administration to give automakers more flexibility to hit the carbon reduction target between now and 2026.

GM’s position, outlined in a letter from Chief Executive Mary Barra to Environmental Protection Agency head Michael Regan, represented the latest shift on vehicle emissions policy by the No. 1 U.S. automaker.

Until November, GM backed the Trump administration’s effort to block California from setting tougher emissions standards than the federal government. Wednesday’s letter followed a call between Barra and Regan on Tuesday.

The major automakers in the United States all face the challenge of protecting petroleum-fueled truck and SUV profits without clashing with an administration committed to stronger climate policy, or investors who are demanding that companies do more to cut emissions.

Ford Motor Co, Honda Motor Co, Volkswagen AG and BMW in July 2019 struck a voluntary agreement with California on reducing vehicle emissions through the 2026 model years that would allow them to meet a single nationwide standard.

Under the California standard, GM and other automakers would be out of compliance for the current 2021 model year and 2022. Industry vehicle lineups locked in for production had aimed to comply with less demanding Trump administration targets.

GM proposes that automakers ramp up to the California greenhouse gas standards by 2023 and then go beyond the proposed California emissions targets for 2024-2026 to reduce overall emissions for the 2020-2026 period by the same amount.

 3. TESLA :Tesla Inc will deliver a high-performance version of its Model S on Thursday, aiming to reignite interest in the nearly decade-old sedan and fend off rivals such as Porsche, Mercedes-Benz and Lucid Motors in the luxury electric vehicle market.

Tesla  redefined electric cars in 2012 when it launched its high-end Model S with a sleek design and long driving range, but is facing a raft of new challengers.

The automaker plans to livestream the delivery of the first Model S Plaid at its U.S. factory in Fremont, California at 7 pm PT (0200 GMT, Friday), according to its official Twitter account.

CEO Elon Musk has not said whether he will take the stage, but he has been on Twitter promoting the new model, which is priced at $129,990 against $79,990 for a long-range Model S.

The latest price for the Model S Plaid is $10,000 more than what was displayed a few days ago on Tesla’s website.

“The Model S has not been changing a lot in terms of looks over the past almost decade. I think Tesla has to offer consumers something more,” said Jessica Caldwell, executive director at car information provider Edmunds said.

The launch of the Model S Plaid, which has already been showcased online, has faced delay and some controversy over an expected airplane-style yoke steering wheel. Musk canceled another variant, Model S Plaid+, which would have had a 33% higher driving range than the Model S Plaid and used advanced battery technology, known as 4680 cells.

“The Model S Plaid is definitely intended to help reduce the migration of current Tesla owners out of Tesla,” said Ed Kim, vice president at consultancy AutoPacific. “I think what we’re seeing now is that Tesla can no longer operate in a vacuum.”

He said Model S Plaid is a low-volume, halo model aimed at showcasing the automaker and generating excitement around the sedan, with Tesla needing to successfully roll out new models like Cybertruck and Semi trucks to expand its customer base.

4.TWITTER:-Twitter Inc  on Wednesday appointed development finance executive Mimi Alemayehou to its board of directors to replace Elliott Management partner Jesse Cohn, after the activist hedge fund helped create a blueprint for changes that led to a doubling of the social media firm’s share price.

Alemayehou will join the board immediately and Cohn will step down, the company said in a release. Elliott, one of Twitter’s top 20 investors, will continue to engage with senior management and the board through an “information sharing and engagement agreement,” Twitter said.

Cohn, who runs the $40 billion hedge fund’s U.S. activism practice, was appointed to the Twitter board in March 2020, as part of a deal with the social media company to let Chief Executive Jack Dorsey keep his job and allow Elliott to take a board seat.

Cohn joined the board alongside Silicon Valley tech investor Egon Durban, co-chief of private equity company Silver Lake.

Elliott had previously pushed to remove Dorsey after criticizing him for holding the CEO position at both Twitter and mobile payments company Square Inc .

After a long period of languishing performance, in which Dorsey admitted Twitter had been slow to innovate and introduce new features, the platform has more recently made a slew of announcements to attract more users and advertisers.

5. PFIZER – The Biden administration plans to donate 500 million Pfizer  coronavirus vaccine doses to nearly 100 countries over the next two years, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

The United States is likely to distribute 200 million shots this year and another 300 million in the first half of next year to 92 lower-income countries and the African Union, they said.

The donations will go through the COVAX vaccine program that distributes COVID-19 shots to low- and middle-income countries. The program is led by the World Health Organization and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI).

GAVI did not respond to a request for comment.

U.S. President Joe Biden will announce the deal on Thursday at the Group of Seven meeting of the world’s wealthiest countries in Britain, one of the people said.

The deal was negotiated over the past four weeks by White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients and the coronavirus task force team, one of the sources said.

CNBC reported on Wednesday that the United States is also talking with Moderna  Inc about buying some of its shots to donate to other countries.

A Moderna spokesperson said the company is interested in possibly providing the U.S. government with COVID-19 shots to give to low- and middle-income countries but declined to comment on any discussions.

The White House and Pfizer declined to comment.

The U.S. president told reporters before boarding Air Force One for Britain that he had a global vaccine strategy and would be announcing it but did not offer details.

The White House has been under mounting pressure to boost donations of COVID-19 shots to other countries.