Stocks rose on Friday and
Standard & Poor's 500
A new record close was set as technology stocks led the rise again on Wall Street.
iRobot shares fell 27% after the Wall Street Journal reported that the European Commission intends to ban Amazon.com.
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Roomba maker acquired. Amazon was told on Thursday in a meeting with competition officials from the European Commission that the deal was likely to be rejected, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the matter. Amazon agreed to buy iRobot for $1.7 billion in August 2022. Amazon shares rose 1.2%.
Spirit Airlines stock rose 17% after the budget carrier said it expects fourth-quarter revenue to hit the high end of its initial guidance and that holiday bookings were strong. The stock closed down 7.5% on Thursday after a magazine report said Spirit was… Planning to explore restructuring options With advisors after the collapse of its merger with JetBlue Airways
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In a statement sent to Baron After markets closed on Thursday, a Spirit spokesman said the company “is neither seeking nor participating in a legal restructuring.” Spirit shares fell 47% on Tuesday and 22% on Wednesday.
Super Micro Computer rose 36% after the maker of servers and computer products said it expects fiscal second-quarter adjusted earnings of $5.40 to $5.55 per share, higher than analyst estimates of $4.51 and better than the company's previous forecast of $4.40 to $4.88. $. It expects sales of $3.6 billion to $3.65 billion, also higher than Wall Street estimates. Super Micro cited “strong market and end-customer demand for our broadband, AI and Total IT Solutions.”
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Advanced Micro Devices shares rose 7.1% to $174.23 and Nvidia shares rose 4.2% to $594.91 after shares of the two chipmakers closed at all-time highs on Thursday. AMD is up 26% this year while Nvidia is up 24%. Shares have received a boost from investors' appetite for everything related to artificial intelligence. On Thursday, AMD and Nvidia received support from Taiwan Semiconductor Corporation
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Better than expected forecast.
Texas Instruments closed up 4.1% to $173.65. UBS upgraded the stock to buy from Neutral and raised its price target on the chipmaker's shares to $195 from $170.
Travelers' stock rose 6.7% after the property casualty insurer reported fourth-quarter core earnings of $7.01 per share, easily beating analysts' estimates of $5.10. The company said the quarter saw higher underwriting gains and lower catastrophe losses.
Wayfair
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It said it would cut 1,650 jobs after admitting it had “overhired during a strong economic period.” Shares of the online home furnishings retailer rose 10%.
Ally Financial shares rose 11%. The bank reported better-than-expected adjusted earnings for the fourth quarter and said Synchrony Financial had acquired its point-of-sale financing business.
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Schlumberger rose 2.2% after the oil services provider's fourth-quarter revenue beat estimates thanks to strong international growth. SLB also raised its quarterly dividend.
International Business Machines rose 2.8% to $171.48 after Evercore raised its rating on the stock to outperform from In Line and increased its price target to $200 from $165.
AT&T shares rose 1.7% to $16.67 after the telecommunications company's shares were upgraded to outperform from outperform at Oppenheimer and the price target was set at $21. Oppenheimer raised its revenue and profit forecasts to
AT&T
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Chegg's rating was downgraded to sell from neutral at Goldman Sachs and its price target was cut to $8 per share from $10. Shares of the education technology company fell 2.2% to $9.84 after analysts said the rise of generative artificial intelligence software tools poses a significant risk to online educational software providers.
Write to Joe Woelfel at joseph.woelfel@barrons.com
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