Shares in chipmaker Nvidia fell 4% in the previous session, seeing it lose its title as the world's most valuable company, pulling it back into second place behind Apple (AAPL).
Monday's fall in shares left Nvidia with a market valuation of $3.3tn (£2.6tn) compared to Apple's $3.5tn.
The stock declined following reports that Nvidia executive Jay Puri had met with China's vice commerce minister Wang Shouwen.
Wang said China welcomed Nvidia's presence and hoped to develop a better business environment for foreign firms, according to reports by Reuters.
The meeting comes as US president Joe Biden's administration is set to announce new export restrictions on China, which includes further curbing access to semiconductors.
Nvidia's shares were nearly 3% in the red over a five-day period, as the company's closely-watched earnings disappointed on revenue guidance and a decline in gross margins.
Apple was also slightly in the red in pre-market trading on Tuesday, as a Financial Times report highlighted the difficulties that the tech company was facing in China with the rollout of its AI model for iPhones and other products.
A top Beijing official reportedly warned that foreign companies like Apple would face a "difficult and long process" for approvals unless they partnered with local groups.
Apple CEO Tim Cook arrived in China on Monday and joined more than 20 business leaders in talks with China's premier, according to Bloomberg.
This marked Cook's third trip to China this year and was reportedly the first high-level meeting between foreign corporations and a senior Beijing official since Donald Trump's US presidential election victory earlier this month.
Trump had already threatened to hike trade tariffs with China in his election campaign and on Monday vowed to impose even deeper tariffs on China after he returns to office in January.
Shares in video conferencing provider Zoom were down nearly 6% in pre-market trading on Tuesday, after the company shared a sales forecast that failed to excite investors.
Zoom guided to total revenue of between $1.175bn and $1.18bn for the fourth quarter, which was only slightly higher than analyst estimates of $1.17bn, according to Bloomberg.
In its third quarter results, released on Monday, Zoom announced that it had changed its name, dropping the "video" from its title to highlight its pivot to an AI-first business.
Eric S Yuan, founder and CEO of Zoom, said: “At Zoomtopia we announced major milestones such as AI Companion 2.0 and paid add-ons for AI Companion and industry-specific AI customisation, further cementing our vision to deliver a differentiated AI-first work platform that empowers customers to achieve more than eve."
For the three months ended 31 October, Zoom generated total revenue of nearly $1.17bn, which was up 3.6% year-on-year. The company reported net income of $207m, up from $141m in the third quarter last year.
Shares in Rivian surged on Monday, closing the session up 13%, following a Bloomberg report that Tesla said it had reached a "conditional" settlement with its electric vehicle (EV) competitor.
Tesla accused Rivian of poaching employees to access proprietary information about its EV tech.
According to the report, Tesla said it expected to seek a dismissal of the case by 24 December upon satisfactory completion of the terms.
A spokesperson for Rivian declined to comment, while Tesla had not responded to Yahoo Finance UK's request for comment at the time of writing.
Meanwhile, Rivian announced that it had received conditional commitment from the US Department Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing (ATVM) loan program of up to $6.6bn. If finalised, the loan would support the construction of Rivian's next facility in Georgia.
Shares in Halfords soared 13% on Tuesday morning, after the UK cycling and motoring products retailer reported its first half results.
Halfords' revenue of £864.8m ($1.08bn) had fallen slightly from the £873.5m reported in the first half last year, the retailer posted underlying profit before tax of £21m, which was also down from £21.3m year-on-year.
However, Halfords said it was comfortable with its full-year consensus with "strong performance in H1 underpinning full-year expectations".
This offered some relief for investors following Halfords' preliminary trading update in late October, which gave a glimpse into the first-half results,
At the time, Graham Stapleton, CEO of Halfords, warned that consumers remained "cautious in their discretionary spending compounded by uncertainty around the contents of the upcoming autumn budget".
Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell, said: "Halfords’ results show a business stuck in the slow lane. Make no mistake, the jump in its share price does not reflect a business in perfect health. This is simply a relief rally that full-year earnings guidance hasn’t changed."
Other companies in the news on Tuesday 26 November:
