By Heard editors

What Happened in Markets Today:

Apple announced plans Monday to spend more than $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four years. Unclear, though, is how much of the planned spending is actually new, writes Heard on the Street's Dan Gallagher. Apple has spent about $1.1 trillion over the past four fiscal years on total operating expenses and capital expenditures.

Berkshire Hathaway shares jumped 4.1% Monday. A recent buildup in the Omaha, Neb., conglomerate's mountain of cash and Treasury bills has drawn attention among investors. Berkshire ended 2024 with $321.4 billion in cash and Treasury bills, after accounting for a payable it recorded for buying the short-term government debt.

Shares in U.S.-listed Chinese technology companies such as Alibaba, JD.com and Temu's parent company PDD fell sharply Monday. The pullback follows an extraordinary runup for some of these stocks, in particular Alibaba, which as of Friday was up nearly 70% this year.

The selloff in Palantir Technologies shares is gaining steam. The data-analytics company's stock, which fell 11%, has been a wildly popular play among retail investors and is often prone to sharp price swings. Among the factors battering the stock? Analysts are worried about potential U.S. defense spending cuts, chief executive Alex Karp's new stock-trading plan and the stock's eye-popping valuation.

Starbucks said it would lay off 1,100 corporate employees and not fill hundreds of open roles, part of new Chief Executive Brian Niccol's effort to streamline operations. Starbucks has been struggling with a string of quarterly sales declines as customers have sought out cheaper coffee, or balked at long lines. The stock closed 1.3% higher.

This analysis comes from the Journal's Heard on the Street team. Subscribe to their free daily afternoon newsletter here.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 24, 2025 17:02 ET (22:02 GMT)

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