• The Nasdaq rose 3.3% to close Thursday’s session at 13,474 points.
• Alibaba dipped 6.7% on Thursday after reporting slowing growth in Q3 results.
• Moderna shares rose 15% on Q4 results & upgraded guidance for 2022.

The US markets overcame a morning sell-off to close Thursday’s session higher as President Biden announced new sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

The Dow Jones rose 0.3% to finish the trading day up 92 points to close at 33,224 points.

The tech heavy NASDAQ rose 3.3% to finish the trading day up 436 points to close at 13,474 points with Netflix and Tesla gaining 6.14% and 4.81% respectively.

One bitcoin is worth US$38,211 going into the Asian trading day.

The Australian dollar is firm against the major currencies and is buying 71.68 US cents.

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba fell almost 6.7% on Thursday after the company reported third-quarter results. For the period, Alibaba reported its slowest quarterly revenue growth since going public in 2014 of just 10% YoY growth to US$38.06bn which fell short of market expectations, and an EPS of US$2.65/share which beat expectations.

Shares in vaccine maker Moderna jumped 15% after the company reported better-than-expected results for the fourth quarter. For the period, Moderna reported EPS of US$11.29/share on revenue of US$7.2bn, and forecasted a COVID-19 vaccine sales in 2022 will be US$2bn higher than previously expected.

And Reddit is taking on TikTok and Instagram after the popular forum site launched a Discover tab that will feature photos and videos from across the site in order to make its mobile app more appealing.