Stock Market News: Fed’s bank stress tests, FTC vs Amazon, Ford layoff numbers | CPT PPP Coverage

Stocks are pulling back from Wall Street’s rally a day before. The S&P 500 was down 0.3% in early trading Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 111 points, or 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite was off 0.3%.

General Mills fell 4.7% for one of the larger drops after it reported weaker revenue than expected. Chipmakers were also heavy weights on the market following a report that the U.S. government is considering restrictions on exports of artificial-intelligence chips to China.

Stocks are still on track to end the week higher following earlier gains on stronger-than-expected data on the U.S. economy.

Threatened by possible shortages of lithium for electric car batteries, automakers are racing to lock in supplies of the once-obscure “white gold” in a politically and environmentally fraught competition from China to Nevada to Chile.

General Motors Co.
and the parent company of China’s BYD Auto Ltd. are going straight to the source and buying stakes in lithium miners, a rare step in an industry that relies on outside vendors for copper and other raw materials.

Others are investing in lithium refiners or recycling technology. A shortfall in supplies would be an obstacle for government and industry plans to ramp up sales to tens of millions of electric vehicles a year.

When DoorDash began, its three co-founders did all the deliveries themselves. A decade later, they’re still at it.

DoorDash Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Andy Fang makes DoorDash deliveries for about an hour each month, which helps him fix problems quickly and better understand drivers and customers.

Fang says those insights are important, which is why DoorDash requires salaried employees in the U.S., Canada and Australia to do at least four deliveries a year.

Fang is one of a growing number of executives occasionally doing hourly work. Starbucks’ new CEO works once a month as a barista, while the CEOs of Uber and Lyft put in ride-sharing shifts.