Summary: Ithaka US Growth Strategy released its first-quarter 2024 investor letter, reporting a 14.9% gross return, outperforming Russell 1000 Growth. NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) was mentioned as a top holding due to its leadership in visual computing and strong performance in exciting areas of computing.
Full articleSummary: Nike predicts single-digit growth for the first half of the fiscal year, plans cost-cutting measures including laying off 740 employees at its Oregon headquarters. The company aims to reduce its total workforce by about 2%. Financial analysts note that Nike is losing appeal on the sneaker front.
Full articleSummary: Multiple car manufacturers, including Ford, Tesla, Toyota, and Lexus, are recalling thousands of vehicles due to safety issues related to battery, accelerator pedal pad, rear door switch, and occupant classification system sensor, respectively.
Full articleSummary: Benzinga's options scanner has identified significant options activity on Oracle, with big players eyeing a price window from $112.0 to $130.0. Noteworthy options transactions include PUT SWEEP BEARISH trade for $297.5K and PUT SWEEP BULLISH trade for $35.7K.
Full articleSummary: Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) has experienced a significant stock price decline due to shifting consumer spending behaviors, resulting in concerns about near-term revenue prospects. However, the company is implementing strategies to drive growth and improve financials, making its shares potentially attractive at their current low valuations.
Full articleSummary: Salesforce stock rose 2% after deciding not to pursue a deal to buy Informatica, resulting in a 10% drop in Informatica stock. Salesforce has been focusing on AI and has acquired more than 70 companies since 2006.
Full articleSummary: Wall Street research calls include upgrades for PPG, Sea Limited, Ingevity, Alcoa, and Papa John's, while downgrades were issued for Cisco, Western Digital, Prologis, and PPG Industries.
Full articleSummary: Salesforce will lobby for new regulations requiring companies to disclose emissions data and efficiency standards for artificial intelligence, as part of its new 'Sustainable AI Policy Priorities' amid growing concerns over environmental impacts of AI.
Full articleSummary: EFG Asset Management Americas Corp. lowered its stake in Texas Instruments by 73.4% during the 4th quarter. Other institutional investors also adjusted their stakes in the company. Director Mark A. Blinn sold 1,744 shares of the stock. Analysts set new price targets for TXN stock.
Full articleSummary: Meta Platforms is benefiting from an influx in spending from Chinese ecommerce advertisers, particularly from companies like Temu and Shein, resulting in significant revenue growth and expected positive impact on earnings. Analysts forecast continued ad spending from Chinese companies on Meta's platforms throughout 2024.
Full articleSummary: Costco drivers in Washington voted to join Teamsters Local 174 due to workplace concerns such as wages and retirement benefits. This follows a historic victory in December 2023 for Costco workers in Norfolk, Va., who became the first to win union representation at the company in over two decades. Teamsters ratified the first-ever national master agreement for Costco workers in October 2022.
Full articleSummary: Salesforce (CRM) is trading higher after cooling talks to acquire Informatica (INFA) as they couldn't agree on deal terms. Informatica announced they are not engaged in any acquisition talks before their earnings report.
Full articleSummary: Google fires 28 workers for protesting its collaboration with Israel's military through Project Nimbus, leading to worker occupation and subsequent dismissals, sparking calls for global workers' action and criticizing trade union leaders for lack of support.
Full articleSummary: Philip Morris International (PMI) is funding the purchase of two UAS drones for the Romanian Border Police, as part of the PMI Impact program aimed at combating smuggling. The drones will help monitor over 500 km of difficult-to-reach border areas to detect illicit trafficking of products, including cigarettes. PMI is emphasizing the importance of eliminating illicit trade to build a smoke-free future.
Full articleSummary: The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is considering implementing a 24/7 trading schedule, seeking feedback from market participants. This move is in line with the increasing interest in trading major stocks overnight, influenced by the surge in retail investor activity and continuous trading of cryptocurrencies.
Full articleSummary: Microsoft to deliver technical bootcamp on Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365 implementations at IGEL DISRUPT 24 Expo.
Full articleSummary: ConocoPhillips had its price target boosted by Susquehanna to $154.00 with a 'positive' rating on the energy producer's stock, suggesting a potential upside of 19.47% from the current price. Several other research firms have also given positive ratings and higher price targets for COP.
Full articleSummary: Lee Danner & Bass Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Medtronic plc by 8.2% during the 4th quarter. Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Analyst ratings for MDT have been positive with a consensus rating of 'Moderate Buy' and an average target price of $94.91. Medtronic announced a quarterly dividend. Insider activity includes recent sales by EVPs Michael Marinaro and Sean Salmon.
Full articleSummary: Apple stock has underperformed the market, but a Wells Fargo analyst recommends buying the dip ahead of potential positive catalysts such as updates on generative AI projects at WWDC.
Full articleSummary: Israeli military's top intelligence officer, Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, resigns over failure to prevent surprise attack by Hamas terrorists near Gaza. He will remain in post until replacement is found.
Full articleSummary: Philip Morris International Inc. (PM) is expected to beat earnings with recent favorable earnings estimate revision activity and a Zacks Earnings ESP of +3.75%, indicating a positive surprise might be in store for the upcoming report.
Full articleSummary: Informatica states it is not in talks to be acquired by Salesforce following the breakdown of negotiations for a roughly $10 billion deal. Salesforce had been discussing a bid in the mid-$30s per share.
Full articleSummary: Geopolitical tensions, hawkish Fed comments supported the Dollar against major currencies. Dollar Index gained during the week due to positive U.S. retail sales data and Fed Chair's speech. European Central Bank's hints of rate cut boosted Euro against Dollar; Pound weakened on rate cut expectations from the Bank of England. Australian Dollar and Japanese Yen slipped against the Dollar during the week.
Full articleSummary: Kraft Heinz faced consumer class action lawsuits due to contaminated 'Lunchables' products with heavy metals like lead and cadmium.
Full articleSummary: Euronet Worldwide (NASDAQ:EEFT) was upgraded by Citigroup from a 'neutral' rating to a 'buy' rating with a price target of $120.00, suggesting a potential upside of 15.77%. Various other brokerages have also given 'buy' ratings for EEFT. Euronet Worldwide's stock price closed at $103.65 on Monday.
Full articleSummary: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella emphasized Microsoft's pivotal role in the growth of leading AI company OpenAI, highlighting financial contributions and global advancement opportunities from healthy competition among tech giants.
Full articleSummary: Google DeepMind published a research paper introducing RecurrentGemma, a language model that can match or exceed transformer-based models' performance while being more memory efficient. RecurrentGemma offers the promise of large language model performance on resource-limited environments.
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