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Palo Alto Networks (PANW) shares jumped during intraday trading Tuesday after the cybersecurity company reported stronger-than-expected earnings amid its ongoing "platformization" efforts.

Shares of Palo Alto Networks rose nearly 9% Tuesday morning, contributing to their more than 25% year-to-date gain.

Several analysts lifted their price targets on Palo Alto's stock following the strong quarterly results. They noted the company's platformization-related sales strength, early artificial intelligence (AI) gains, and the impact of last month's CrowdStrike (CRWD) outage.

Palo Alto Networks provided investors with updates about its platformizaton strategy, where it consolidates its cybersecurity services on its platform and bundles offers to support sales. The company also noted early gains from its integration of AI.

Jefferies analysts lifted their target for the stock to $400 from $365, saying that "most importantly" the company "continues to take share via consolidation."

Citi analysts, who raised their target to $395 from $385, highlighted that Palo Alto Networks showed investors "tangible platformization proof points."

The cybersecurity provider reported that platformization momentum accelerated during the fiscal fourth quarter with the number of consolidated deals up 50%.

Palo Alto Networks' early gains from AI integration also caught analysts' attention.

J.P. Morgan analysts said the company showcased "early momentum in AI" with its AI-infused cybersecurity offerings. The analysts lifted their price target to $387 from $365.

Citi analysts said Palo Alto Networks represents a "GenAI story with real-teeth."

Analysts have indicated that Palo Alto Networks along with other competitors like SentinelOne (S) could gain customers leaving CrowdStrike after a faulty update last month caused a global tech outage and cost clients billions.

"The recent outage has caused a number of customers to reevaluate their options," Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora said in the company's earnings call.

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Boeing (BA) has found cracks in the structure of its 777X jetliner in initial test flights, another mishap for the carrier this year.

The plane maker said it is grounding its 777X test fleet after an inspection showed the failure of a key engine mounting structure.

"During scheduled maintenance, we identified a component that did not perform as designed," a Boeing spokesperson said in a statement provided to. "Our team is replacing the part and capturing any learnings from the component and will resume flight testing when ready."

The news of the cracks in the jet was first reported by trade publication

Boeing shares, which are falling 1.5% in premarket trading, are down more than 30% this year as the airplane maker grapples with a series of setbacks since a door plug detached during an Alaska Airlines (ALK) flight in January, leading the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ground expansion plans for its best-selling 737 MAX.

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Media executive Edgar Bronfman Jr. has reportedly submitted a formal $4.3 billion bid for National Amusements, the controlling shareholder of Paramount Global (PARA), after Skydance Media struck a deal for Shari Redstone's media empire last month.

According to , Bronfman's offer for National Amusements is similar in price to Skydance's, but apart from a $400 million breakup fee, a key difference is that there would be no dilution for Paramount shareholders, as it isn't an all-stock bid.

Bronfman has secured financing from high-net-worth individuals and family offices, and is teaming up with movie producer Steven Paul, the report said.

The reported bid by Bronfman comes as a 45-day "go-shop period" that allows Paramount to seek a better offer expires Wednesday.

Bronfman's is the latest in a series of offers for control of Paramount in recent months. The entertainment firm, which owns CBS, MTV, and its eponymous movie studio, has been struggling as the rise of streamers like Netflix (NFLX) disrupt traditional networks.

Paramount shares are down about 3% an hour before the opening bell Tuesday. 

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Shares in Palo Alto Networks (PANW) rose in premarket trading Tuesday after the cybersecurity provider released quarterly results that surpassed expectations and issued an outlook at the high end of Wall Street forecasts, as customers embraced its offerings amid growing cyber threats.

Although the shares have gained about 16% higher since the start of the year, investors have scrutinized the company’s platformization plan. Under the strategy, the company consolidates its cybersecurity services on its platform and bundles offers, in an effort to become a one-stop shop for clients.

Palo Alto shares were up 2.4% at $351.50 about two hours before the opening bell Tuesday.

Below, we discuss the technicals on Palo Alto’s chart and point out important price levels to watch out for following the better-than-expected results.

Since bottoming out in January last year, Palo Alto shares have remained in a long-term uptrend. More recently, buyers promptly snapped up a temporary dip below a multi-month trendline and the 200-day moving average earlier this month, with the price continuing to show upward momentum leading into the company’s quarterly report.

If Palo Alto shares rally, investors should monitor three overhead price levels of interest.

The first sits around $345. Although projected to open above this level on Tuesday, it’s worth monitoring if the stock can hold this area, a location that may encounter selling pressure near periods of consolidation on the chart during January and February.

Further bullish momentum could see the shares revisit the $375 region, where they would likely run into significant resistance around the stock's all-time high (ATH) set in February.

To forecast an upside target above the stock’s record high, we can use a bars pattern, a chart technique that comes in handy when there’s no prior price action to compare. We do this by taking the trending move from November to February and repositioning it from this month’s low, which projects a target of around $435.

If the shares undergo a pullback, investors should keep a close eye on the $316 level just above the multi-month uptrend line and rising 200-day MA. This area on the chart would likely attract buying interest near a key horizontal line joining the December swing high with several other peaks and troughs around the same level between February and August.

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The latest legal back-and-forth over student loan debt relief could once again end up in the Supreme Court, whose conservative majority blocked President Joe Biden’s previous efforts.

For the past several months, the Saving for a Valuable Education (SAVE) repayment plan has been in limbo as two cases—initially led by the attorneys general of Missouri and Kansas, respectively—work their way through federal courts. These cases have resulted in a back-and-forth for borrowers that ultimately resulted in forbearance for all those enrolled in the income-driven plan until the legal issues can be resolved.

This has left borrowers with an unclear path ahead as the complicated court proceedings leave the Department of Education and the states that are suing to block the repayment plan to interpret rulings and file a web of legal actions.

Last week, the Biden administration asked the Supreme Court to lift a lower court's ruling that had blocked the SAVE plan until the Missouri case is resolved. The filing from the Department of Justice also asked the high court to deny an appeal filed in the Kansas case.

Here's what you need to know about the legal battle surrounding the SAVE plan.

Two parallel and similar court cases were filed by a contingency of Republican-led states in the spring. These cases seek to block the SAVE plan, arguing that the eventual cost is so high that only Congress—not the White House on its own—should be allowed to authorize the expenditure.

The plan is more generous to borrowers, who would only be required to pay 5% of their discretionary income and have the remaining balance forgiven after 20 or 25 years. Implementing the plan would cause a $475 billion hit to the federal budget over 10 years because of lower student loan payments and more debt forgiveness, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania estimated last year.

“The President is unilaterally trying to impose an extraordinarily expensive and controversial policy that he could not get through Congress,” Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said in a statement earlier this year when he launched one of the lawsuits against the plan.

However, according to Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, student loan debt is a crisis the administration is committed to mitigating.

“It wasn’t so long ago that a million borrowers defaulted on their student loans every single year, mainly because they couldn’t afford the payments," Cardona said in a statement. "The SAVE plan is a bold and urgently needed effort to fix what’s broken in our student loan system and make financing a higher education more affordable in this country."

The states and the Federal government haven't even made arguments about the actual merits of the case yet—many of the squabbles thus far have been about what to do with the program until the court case is resolved. That hasn't kept it from being complicated.

"We're at the string board point of the litigation," said Persis Yu, deputy executive director and managing counsel of the Student Borrower Protection Center.

The first order of business for judges has been a legal concept called Standing, which has been important in many student loan-related cases. For judges to rule on the merits of a case, a plaintiff must prove they have been harmed by the defendant's law-breaking and the court can fix it. In the Kansas case, the judge ruled that a majority of the states in the coalition (including Kansas) did not have reason enough to bring a case against the SAVE Act.

The next was whether the program would be able to move forward while the cases were being litigated. Judges had different thoughts on how the implementation of the plan could proceed, causing headaches for borrowers trying to keep up.

In the Missouri case, an appeals court has blocked the implementation of the SAVE plan until the case can be resolved. In the Kansas case, lawyers are awaiting for the appeals to be settled by the Supreme Court.

Although it is a moot point because of the block in the Missouri Case, Alaska appealed the court ruling that allowed changes to move forward on July 1 in the case originally brought by Kansas. That case has been appealed all the way up to the Supreme Court.

While the appeals only pertain to what happens to the plan while the case is disputed, the Supreme Court could choose to take on the case in its entirety. In fact, the Texas Solicitor General as a part of Kansas' original case has asked that the highest court do just that—and to go even further and not hear oral arguments.

The highest court in the nation stuck down a broad student loan forgiveness plan last summer in a case that echoes some of the beats in the cases around the SAVE plan.

If the Supreme Court does not take up the case, both cases will continue to play out in federal courts and will move on to making arguments about whether the Biden administration has the authority to implement the SAVE Act.

No matter how the case plays out, borrowers are caught in the middle of a legal drama that may drag on for an extended amount of time, experts said.

"The best advice I can give borrowers right now is to not make any drastic decisions," said Betsy Mayotte, President of The Institute of Student Loan Advisors. "This situation is truly uncharted territory and it’s going to take the Department of Education and the courts some time to work this through."

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