According to the Wall Street Journal, the US Justice Department is looking into Lordstown Motors.

At 1:25 p.m. EST, the company's stock was down 8.8 percent to $9.44. The startup has had a string of mishaps in recent months, drawing regulators' attention.

EV companies reported sales in the second quarter.

Tesla announced today that it produced 206,421 and delivered 201,250 electric vehicles in the second quarter. The figure is within the range of Wall Street expectations from 200,000 to 207,000 vehicles. Li Auto also reported June deliveries of 7,713 Li One SUVs, a 78.4 percent increase over May and a 321 percent increase over the previous year. Second-quarter deliveries totaled 17,575, up 166 percent from the previous year and far exceeding the company's target of 14,500-15,500. Despite a global chip shortage, Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers Nio (NIO) and Xpeng Motors (XPEV) reported record sales on Thursday.

On Friday, Tesla's stock was flat, while LI's stock was down 6%.

Apple could become Google Cloud's biggest customer.

Apple signed a deal with Google Cloud to host some of its iCloud services 5 years ago. According to the digital media news site The Information, Apple will increase its spending on Google Cloud by 50 percent this year, making it Google's largest enterprise cloud storage customer. It may also help it expand into connected cars, augmented reality devices, and smart appliances. In the first quarter of 2021, Google Cloud held only 7% of the global cloud infrastructure market. Apple would most likely obtain the lowest cloud hosting rates from Google, which needs more partnerships to compete with AWS and Azure.

Google's shares rose 2.11% as of 12PM PST on Friday.

Ford announced on Friday that its electrified vehicle sales, which include hybrids, set a new high for the first half of 2021.

The automaker reported a 117 percent year-over-year increase in electrified vehicle sales in June, totaling 56,570. In June, Mustang Mach E sales increased by 27% to 12,975 units, compared to the previous month.

GM reported a record number of Bolt EV sales for the second quarter and first half of 2021 late Thursday. In 2021, GM delivered 20,388 Bolt EVs, a 142 percent increase over the previous year. GM delivered approximately 688,000 vehicles in the United States during the second quarter.

Ford's shares are up 0.37% and GM down 0.49% today.

China has begun an investigation into Didi, Chinese Uber, cybersecurity.

The move is intended to prevent data security risks, protect national security, and protect the public interest. Didi lost up to 11% of its market value at one point on Friday, indicating a rapid turnaround. The company, which only began trading in New York on Wednesday following an initial public offering, fell 7% to $15.26.

Nvidia target priced raised to $1000.

Nvidia Corp. shares are up about 1 percent on Thursday while the broad markets are down. BMO Capital Markets analyst Ambrish Srivastava raised his price target on the company's stock to $1000 from $750. The new target is the highest among analysts who cover Nvidia's stock.

Today, Nio reported 8,083 vehicle deliveries in June, while XPeng reported 6,565 vehicle deliveries in June.

Nio's deliveries increased by 116.1 percent year on year, while XPeng's increased by 617 percent. The month-over-month growth rates for EV manufacturers were 20.4 percent and 15.5 percent, respectively. Nio's quarterly figure was a record 21,896 units, falling within the company's guidance range of 21,000-22,000.

XPeng also reported record second-quarter deliveries of 17,398, exceeding the company's guidance range of 15,500-16,000.

Both companies' shares fell on Thursday. NIO is down 5.7% and XPeng is down 2.7% as of 10:15AM PST.

The Labor Department issued its weekly report on new jobless claims on Thursday at 8:30 a.m. ET.

The initial jobless claims figure for the week ending June 26 is 364,000, compared to 388,000 expected and an upwardly revised 415,000 the previous week. For the first time in three weeks, it fell below 400,000.

AMD received unconditional approval from European Union antitrust regulators for its $35 billion bid for Xilinx. (XLNX).

The European Commission stated that it found no antitrust violations in the deal between the two chipmakers.

AMD stocks are down 1.45% as of 10AM PST.

Tesla Inc. is preparing a sales update this week

in response to ongoing concerns about the company's sales in China, where the Silicon Valley electric-car maker already faces stiff competition from domestic EV makers. According to FactSet polled analysts, Tesla (TSLA) will sell 207,000 vehicles in the second quarter, including 114,000 Model 3 sedans and 78,000 Model Y compact SUVs, with the remainder split roughly evenly between Model S luxury sedan and Model X luxury SUV vehicles. On Friday, the automaker is expected to report quarterly sales and production figures.