Equities Wrap: Salesforce Boosts Dow to 2023 high and Healthcare Rebounds; Big Tech Drags on Nasdaq
1 hr 38 min ago
Stocks ended Thursday mixed, with the Dow leaving the S&P 500 and Nasdaq in its dust as it jumped to its highest level all year.
The Dow
Salesforce (CRM) led the Dow higher after it reported quarterly earnings that exceeded Wall Street’s estimates. Shares gained more than 9%.
UnitedHealth Group (UNH) rose 3.4%, more than recovering yesterday’s losses after saying the company’s medical loss ratio would be higher and its margins lower next year amid changes to Medicare Advantage rates.
Boeing (BA) shares climbed 3.2% after the jet maker and Canada reached a $5.9 billion deal to buy 16 Boeing surveillance aircraft.
Shares of Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) rose 1.7% after it acquired privately-held medical tech company Laminar for $400 million.
Intel (INTC) and Walmart (WMT) were the two worst-performing stocks in the index, falling 0.5% and 0.3%, respectively.
The S&P 500
Phillips 66 (PSX) gained after activist investor Elliott Investment Management revealed a $1 billion stake in the oil refiner and its intention to seek board seats.
Molina Healthcare (MOH) and Centene (CNC), two healthcare companies specializing in Medicare and Medicaid services, each gained more than 4%, rebounding from losses yesterday that coincided with UnitedHealth’s warnings about the impact of Medicare changes on 2024 results.
AbbVie (ABBV) rose 2.8% after agreeing to acquire biotech ImmunoGen for $10.1 billion.
Ford (F) fell 3.1% after reinstating its full-year 2023 guidance and lowering earnings estimates to reflect nearly $2 billion in UAW strike-related losses.
Occidental Petroleum (OXY) lost 2% after reports it was in talks to acquire Permian basin oil producer CrownRock for $10 billion.
The Nasdaq 100
Tech giants weighed on the Nasdaq 100. Nvidia (NVDA) lost 2.9%, leading semiconductor stocks lower. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Broadcom (AVGO) lost 2.2% and 1.5%, respectively.
Alphabet (GOOGL) lost 1.9%, continuing to slide after yesterday’s news it would pay Canadian news publishers more than $70 billion a year for their content. Meta Platforms (META), which owns Instagram and Facebook, has blocked news on its apps in Canada. Meta shares fell 1.5% today.
Tesla (TSLA) fell 1.8% as it delivered 10 Cybertrucks at a long-awaited event in Austin this afternoon.
Workday (WDAY) rose for a second day after reporting better-than-expected earnings yesterday.
Snowflake Shares Surge on Profit and Sales Beat, Citing ‘Stabilizing’ Environment
2 hr 46 min ago
Snowflake (SNOW) shares rose 7% Thursday after reporting better-than-expected quarterly results and guidance as the market for its cloud data warehousing services improved.
The company posted a third quarter fiscal 2024 profit of $0.25 per share, up $0.11 from 2022 and well above estimates. Revenue rose 31.8% to $734.2 million, and product revenue jumped 34% to $698.5 million. They also beat forecasts.
CEO Frank Slootman said the quarterly performance reflects “strong execution in a broadly stabilizing macro environment.”
Shares of Snowflake traded at their highest level since July following the news.
-Bill McColl
TradingView.
AbbVie Pays $10.1 Billion for ImmunoGen to Expand Its Cancer Drug Portfolio
3 hr 43 min ago
ImmunoGen (IMGN) shares skyrocketed over 80% in early trading Thursday after AbbVie (ABBV) agreed to buy the rival biotech firm for $10.1 billion to expand its cancer drug portfolio.
The agreement will have AbbVie pay $31.26 per share for ImmunoGen, a whopping 96% premium to the closing price yesterday. The transaction is expected to close in the middle of next year, and AbbVie noted that it expects the deal to be accretive to earnings per share (EPS) in 2027.
The acquisition gives AbbVie ImmunoGen’s flagship cancer medicine, Elahere, an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) to treat platinum-resistant ovarian cancer (PROC).
The news sent shares of ImmunoGen to their highest level in 23 years. AbbVie shares were up 2% as well.
-Bill McColl
TradingView.
Midday Movers
4 hr 34 min ago
Discover Financial Services (DFS): Shares of the financial services company rose more than 4% after it said it was exploring the possibility of selling its student loan business. Discover will stop accepting student loan applications on Feb. 1, 2024.
Phillips 66 (PSX): Shares of the oil refiner climbed 4%, gaining for a second day after activist investor Elliott Investment Management disclosed a $1 billion stake and began pushing for changes to the company’s board of directors.
AbbVie Inc. (ABBV): Shares of the pharmaceutical company rose 2% after it agreed to buy biotech firm ImmunoGen for $10.1 billion to expand its cancer drug portfolio.
Ford Motor Co. (F): Shares of the carmaker fell more than 3% after it reinstated its full-year earnings guidance, forecasting adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of $10 billion to $10.5 billion, which reflects $1.7 billion in UAW strike-related losses.
Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL): Shares fell almost 3% a day after Google struck a deal with the Canadian government that obligates the search engine to pay Canadian news outlets CAD$100 million a year for their content.
Ford Shares Fall After Reinstating Guidance Following UAW Strike
5 hr 11 min ago
Ford (F) shares fell over 3% Thursday after the company reinstated its 2023 guidance.
The company had previously withdrawn its 2023 full-year guidance in its third-quarter earnings report, citing uncertainty surrounding the impact of the strike by the United Auto Workers (UAW) union.
Chief Financial Officer (CFO) John Lawler said that Ford now expects full-year 2023 adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of $10 billion to $10.5 billion, which accounts for $1.7 billion in strike-related losses. In its second-quarter earnings report before the UAW strike started, Ford had anticipated adjusted EBIT of $11 billion to $12 billion.
With Thursday’s decline, Ford shares were down more than 10% year-to-date.
-Naomi Buchanan
TradingView
Oil Falls Despite Reports of Further OPEC+ Production Cuts
6 hr 11 min ago
Oil futures tanked Thursday morning despite reports that OPEC+ had agreed to cut production by 1 million barrels per day, adding to the 1.66 million barrels a day cartel members have voluntarily stopped pumping this year.
Data showing economic activity is moderating in the U.S.—and declining more briskly in most other advanced economies—has signaled softer demand for oil ahead. That’s taken the wind out of oil’s sails after a run-up in prices in the third quarter. Since reaching their highest price all year in late September, West Texas Intermediate futures contracts have lost about 20% to trade around $75 on Thursday. The cartel of major oil producers is attempting to prop up prices by restricting global supply.
Thursday’s OPEC+ meeting was originally scheduled for last weekend but was delayed as Saudi Arabia, according to reports, pressed other members to cut production further.
Disney Stock Gives Up Gains as Nelson Peltz Pushes for Board Seats
6 hr 45 min ago
Shares of Disney (DIS) gave up early gains Thursday morning as activist investor Nelson Peltz prepared to push for two seats on the entertainment giant’s board.
Disney shareholders can nominate new board members starting Dec. 5 and, according to a CNBC report, Peltz intends to launch a proxy battle for two board positions. It is Peltz and his firm Trian Partners, which controls more than $2 billion of Disney shares, second attempt at a Disney seat in less than a year. He called off his first attempt in February when Disney agreed to cut billions of dollars in costs.
Disney appointed two new board members yesterday—outgoing CEO of Morgan Stanley, James Gorman, and former Sky CEO Jeremy Darroch—in what some interpreted as an attempt to fend off Peltz, who has criticized the company and its CEO Bob Iger for failing to transparently develop succession plans.
Gorman, who will step down as Morgan Stanley’s CEO at the end of the year, was “integral to Morgan Stanley’s well-managed succession process over the past year,” said Mark Parker, chair of Disney’s board.
The Fed’s Favorite Inflation Measure Fell To Its Lowest Since March 2021
7 hr 21 min ago
Prices for goods and services rose a negligible amount in October from September, according to the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said Thursday.
The 0.04% rise, rounded off to 0% in official statistics, made for a 3% increase over the last 12 months. That’s down from a 3.4% rise in September and the lowest since March 2021. That was slightly lower than the 3.1% consensus forecast among economists, according to Bloomberg LP. The cooling inflation was largely due to a 2.6% drop in energy prices over the month.
Income and spending both rose, although less than in previous months. Income rose 0.2%, a slowdown from the 0.4% increase in September, and spending went up 0.2%, compared to a 0.7% increase in September.
-Diccon Hyatt
Tesla Shares Slip Ahead of Cybertruck Event
8 hr 2 min ago
Shares of Tesla (TSLA) fell in early trading Thursday as investors awaited the delivery of the first Cybertruck, the fully electric pickup truck that has taken four years to roll out amid production delays.
The Cybertruck was first announced in 2019. It was slated to begin production in 2021, but Tesla wasn’t able to unveil its first truck until July 2023. Now, the company’s delivering 10 vehicles at an event in Austin, TX, scheduled to start at 2 p.m. CT.
The Cybertruck, with its polygonal shape and stainless steel exterior, has proved difficult to produce. CEO Elon Musk has said he doesn’t expect to be able to produce the truck at scale until 2025.
Morning Market Movers
8 hr 53 min ago
Gains:
- Salesforce Inc. (CRM): Shares jumped 9% after the enterprise software company’s quarterly earnings topped Wall Street estimates as earnings got a boost from cost cuts and AI offerings.
- Snowflake Inc. (SNOW): Shares of the cloud data company gained 9% after beating analysts’ sales and earnings estimates in the third quarter.
- Robinhood Markets Inc. (HOOD): Shares of the online retail brokerage gained more than 2% after it said it was ready to expand to the U.K. next year.
Losses:
- Pure Storage Inc. (PSTG): Shares of the data storage company tumbled 13% after it forecasted lower-than-expected current quarter sales as the company transitioned customers to a subscription model that generated less up-front revenue.
- Okta Inc. (OKTA): Shares of the cloud cybersecurity provider fell 2% after management confirmed reports that all customer support users were affected by a security breach previously thought to only affect 1% of users.
- Tesla Inc. (TSLA): Shares of the electric vehicle maker fell about 2% ahead of its much-anticipated Cybertruck delivery event in Austin.
Index Futures Up Ahead of October Inflation Data
10 hr 16 min ago
Futures contracts connected to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were 0.6% higher in premarket trading.
S&P 500 futures rose 0.3%.
Nasdaq 100 futures also gained 0.3%.
