Amazon may be slowly on its way to disintegration, if statements from an activist investor are to be believed. It’s still a long way off, though. Meanwhile, the e-commerce giant has settled its dispute with Visa over interconnect fees. Walmart’s earnings report is due the day after a solid U.S. retail sales report for January and the latest Federal Reserve minutes, which have heightened fears of an interest rate hike. Data on jobless claims and housing starts will be the main economic news. The situation in eastern Ukraine is keeping the region on edge and oil prices have fallen after signs of falling demand due to high prices in the US. Here’s what you need to know about the financial market on Thursday, Feb. 17.

1. is Amazon on the verge of disintegration?

Amazon may be on the verge of a breakup. At least, that’s the ultimate logical conclusion from comments made by activist investor Dan Leeb, who reportedly told clients that he sees another $1 trillion of untapped value in the company.

That possibility comes from the fact that Amazon’s underlying businesses have radically different profitability. In the last quarter, Amazon actually made all of its money from hosting cloud services and advertising. Its e-commerce business, by contrast, operated at a loss due to growing pricing pressures in the U.S. and is farther away from making a profit outside the country than ever before.

Amazon was also in the news the day before for settling its spat with Visa over card fees. The truce means Amazon customers will still be able to use Visa cards in the UK, and additional fees introduced in Australia and Singapore last year will be removed.

Amazon’s big tech rivals Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:FB) will also be in the spotlight a little later today after Google said it would stop tracking cross-apps, further hitting Facebook and other social networks’ ability to sell targeted advertising.

2. Applications for unemployment benefits and housing construction

The weekly update from the US labor market will be released at 08:30am ET (13:30 GMT), and analysts expect initial jobless claims to remain in their recent range of just over 200k.

This data will be released at the same time as January’s housing starts and building permits, which are expected to be only slightly down from December levels. New home construction has not maintained current levels of activity since the 2006 mortgage boom, and has so far resisted pressure from rising mortgage rates.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s business survey is the other major release of the day.

3- U.S. market is set to open lower; Walmart report expected

Stock indexes in the U.S. are set to open lower following the release of the Federal Reserve’s latest monetary policy meeting minutes, which were a clear reminder of the pressure on the central bank to raise interest rates and sell its existing bond holdings.

By 06:15 a.m. ET (11:15 a.m. GMT), Dow Jones futures were down 174 points, or 0.5%, while S&P 500 futures were down a similar level and Nasdaq 100 futures were down 0.7%.

The big corporate news of the day will be Walmart’s earnings report, due out a day after official U.S. retail sales data for January showed a sharp rebound in spending. The consumption forecast from the country’s largest traditional retailer will offer a perspective that official data, which suffers distortions during the usual seasonal adjustment process, may not reflect.

Also in focus will be Nvidia, whose shares fell in the premarket after releasing a forecast that wasn’t as optimistic as many expected, and DoorDash, whose record revenue in the latest quarter defied concerns that opening physical restaurants would hit its business.

4. Tensions in Ukraine continue to rise

Tensions on the border with Ukraine continue to escalate amid reiterations by Kiev and NATO of the lack of a meaningful withdrawal of Russian troops from forward positions.

European natural gas futures rose 8% in early trading, but pulled back to rise about 5% by midday. Meanwhile, the Russian ruble fell about 1% against the dollar.

5. Oil prices continue to depreciate after US inventories rise

The price of crude oil fell back to $91 a barrel as signs of weakening demand in the U.S. added to factors that make further gains at such elevated levels difficult.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday that U.S. crude inventories rose by 1.1 million barrels last week, in contrast to an American Petroleum Institute estimate that said inventories fell slightly. Gasoline inventories, however, fell by a stronger 1.3 million barrels.

By 06:25 a.m. ET (11:25 a.m. GMT), U.S. WTI crude futures were down 2.4 percent to $91.42 a barrel, while Brent crude was down 2.1 percent to $92.77 a barrel.