The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC +1.63%) continued its impressive outperformance of the rest of the stock market on Tuesday morning. Even as other major market benchmarks lost ground, the Nasdaq opened higher. By 10:15 a.m. EST, the Nasdaq was trading in record territory, rising nearly half a percent.
A couple of well-known companies stood out from the Nasdaq crowd on Tuesday morning. Peloton Interactive (PTON +4.65%) is a brand-new member of the Nasdaq-100 Index, and it announced big corporate news that could change the way people look at the company. Meanwhile, Apple (AAPL 0.85%) has been in the Nasdaq for a whole lot longer, and its latest initiative has investors excited about the tech giant climbing far beyond its current $2.25 trillion market cap.
Peloton heads for the gym
Shares of Peloton Interactive soared more than 13% on Tuesday morning. The move came after the maker of interactive fitness equipment turned to the mergers and acquisitions arena to spur on more growth.
Image source: Peloton Interactive.
Peloton signed an agreement to buy privately held industry peer Precor for $420 million late Monday. The parties expect the deal to close in early 2021.
For Peloton, the acquisition serves a couple of key purposes. First and foremost, Peloton has had challenges building enough equipment to meet unprecedented demand during the COVID-19 pandemic. Precor has extensive manufacturing capacity in the U.S., and once the companies can adapt Precor's production facilities to make its products, Peloton should be able to respond to its order flow more quickly and efficiently.
In addition, Precor has a lot of other assets that will be valuable to Peloton. In-house research and development team members should accelerate new initiatives to create interactive equipment. Moreover, Precor equipment is found extensively in gyms and fitness centers, and that gives Peloton potential inroads to go beyond people's homes.
With such a low price tag -- and with the deal happening in cash -- Peloton shareholders couldn't be happier about the Precor deal. That's why the stock is soaring and could have further room to run in the future.
Apple hits the road
Elsewhere, Apple shares were up more than 3%. Not content with having the top new 5G-enabled smartphone in its arsenal, the tech giant is moving forward with efforts to enter the crowded but popular electric vehicle and autonomous driving space.
Apple has been looking at a potential "iCar" for quite a while now, but recent reports renewed speculation that the company wants to make its own vehicle within the next few years. Although the company itself didn't confirm the reports, a consumer-targeted vehicle with a new battery design to increase range would potentially present a challenge to Tesla (TSLA +0.69%).
Many remain skeptical, noting that just because Apple has become a massive consumer manufacturing operation doesn't mean it'll be a natural jump to automotive production. Yet even if Apple only concentrates on infrastructure like a viable self-driving software platform and improved batteries, it would potentially add a brand new aspect to the company's overall corporate footprint.
With iPhone sales soaring and other products and services continuing to grow, Apple has a lot going for it. For many, an iCar would just be icing on the cake for the multi-trillion dollar tech stock.
