Monday's Pre-Market: Trump fraud case, Ukraine's support, Sony, continued cost cuts, Germany comments on NATO

Trump ordered to pay $454 million in fines and interest in NY business fraud case

• Donald Trump has been ordered to pay about $454 million in total penalties after a judge found that Trump, his company and others fraudulently inflated assets to boost his net worth and get financial perks.

• That includes about $355 million in disgorgement and more than $98 million in prejudgment interest at a 9% annual rate.

• Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron also barred Trump for three years from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation, or applying for loans from any New York chartered or registered financial institution.

• “Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological,” Engoron wrote in a scathing ruling.

‘It is urgent’: European leaders appeal for greater support for Ukraine as Russia makes major gain

• The West is suffering a “colossal failure of imagination” in thinking Russia’s war in Ukraine will not hit them next, defense policymakers heard at Munich Security Conference.

• “The sense of urgency is simply not clear enough,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said, joining European leaders in calling for more arms for Ukraine as the war enters its third year.

• Hillary Clinton said “reality should have overcome” any pushback from the U.S. House in funding more support for the war-torn country.

Sony plunged $10 billion after its PS5 sales cut. But a bigger issue is its near decade low games margin

• Around $10 billion of value was wiped off Sony’s stock this week after it cut its sales forecast for its flagship PlayStation 5 console for the fiscal year.

• But analysts, who already thought Sony’s PS5 target was too lofty, told CNBC a bigger issue for the Japanese tech giant is the company’s declining margins in its key gaming business.

• Analysts are questioning why Sony’s gaming margin is not higher despite higher-margin products like digital sales of games and its PS Plus subscription service.

Companies — profitable or not — make 2024 the year of cost cuts

• Nike, Mattel, PayPal, Cisco, Levi Strauss and UPS are just a few of the companies that have announced layoffs in recent weeks.

• Corporate leaders have tried to show Wall Street that they’re aggressively countering inflation-fueled expense increases and adjusting as consumer demand normalizes.

• Industry experts said companies are catching their breath and taking a hard look at how they operate after an unusual four-year stretch caused by the pandemic. They also said there’s safety in numbers, as more companies tighten their belts.

Germany’s defense minister says NATO’s 2% target is just the start: ‘We’ll probably need more’

• Boris Pistorius, Germany’s federal minister of defense, said on a CNBC-moderated panel that spending 2% of GDP on defense “can only be the start of it.”

• Earlier in the day, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz insisted that his country would meet the 2% spending target “in the 2020s, in the 2030s and beyond.”

• This year, 18 of 31 NATO members are expected to reach the 2% target — up from just three in 2014.