Microsoft, Citigroup, Chesapeake Energy, Marathon Digital, Plug Power, Lucid, and More Movers

Citigroup
said it was taking one-time charges of $1.3 billion related to exposures to geopolitical and economic risks in Argentina and Russia. The bank also said it would record a charge of about $1.7 billion to operating expenses in the quarter related to a previously disclosed special assessment by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. These charges affect its fourth-quarter earnings, which will be reported Friday. The stock fell 1.8%.

Chesapeake Energy
and
Southwestern Energy
reached a deal to merge in an all stock-transaction valued at $7.4 billion. The merger values Southwestern stock at $6.69. It fell 2.5% to $6.72. Chesapeake was up 3.2%.

Coinbase
fell 6.7%,
MicroStrategy
fell 5.2%, and
Marathon Digital
was down 13% after the Securities and Exchange Commission approved the launch of the first spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds. The approval of the new ETFs could make buying
Bitcoin
easier and cheaper for retail investors.

Netflix
closed up 2.9% after the streaming company recently topped 23 million global monthly active users, according to the president of advertising, Amy Reinhard, Variety reported. 
Netflix
had said about two months ago that its ad-supported tier had more than 15 million monthly active users worldwide.

Plug Power
fell 7.9% to $3.72 after analysts at Susquehanna downgraded the stock to Neutral from Positive and the price target was cut to $4.50 from $9.

Paramount Global
was down 5.5% to $13.35. Analysts at Redburn Atlantic downgraded the stock to Sell from Neutral. The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Skydance Media CEO David Ellison was discussing an all-cash bid for Paramount’s parent, National Amusements.

KB Home
reported fourth-quarter earnings and sales that fell from a year earlier but the home builder said demand has been improving as mortgage rates fall. “We have experienced a meaningful sequential increase in our net orders for the first five weeks of our 2024 first quarter, as consumers are responding favorably to the recent decline in mortgage rates,” said Chief Executive Jeffrey Mezger. The stock fell 1.2%.

Hertz
said it plans to sell about 20,000 electric vehicles from its U.S. fleet, or about one-third of the car-rental company’s global fleet. Hertz said it would record a $245 million charge related to the sale. In a regulatory filing, the company said it expects to “reinvest a portion of the proceeds from the sale of EVs into the purchase of internal combustion engine vehicles to meet customer demand.” The stock fell 4.3%.

Lucid
fell 4.4% after reporting fourth-quarter deliveries of 1,734 electric vehicles, down 10% from a year earlier and below analysts’ expectations.

Lyft
was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at
Goldman Sachs
but the stock price was raised to $15 from $12.
Lyft
fell 0.3% to $13.30.

Write to Joe Woelfel at [email protected]