Select a category

U.S. equities were mixed at midday as tech shares rallied from their recent slump and a report showed consumer confidence fell this month, though not as much as economists anticipated. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq rose, but the Dow lost ground. 

Cruise lines dominated the top of the list of best-performing stocks in the S&P 500 after Carnival (CCL) posted a surprise profit and raised its outlook as it benefited from higher ticket prices and increased onboard spending by passengers.

Nvidia (NVDA) shares gained, recovering somewhat from their recent selloff, helping boost other stocks related to artificial intelligence (AI). Enthusiasm for AI developments lifted shares of Eli Lilly (LLY), as the pharmaceutical firm announced it was working with Microsoft-backed OpenAI to find new treatments to fight drug-resistant pathogens. 

Shares of SolarEdge Technologies (SEDG) tumbled after the solar power equipment maker said one of its customers filed for bankruptcy and likely won’t be able to pay its debt. SolarEdge also said it would be selling $300 million in convertible bonds due in 2029. The news dragged down shares of others in the sector, including Enphase Energy (ENPH).

Pool Corporation (POOL) shares sank as the distributor of pool products lowered its full-year guidance, blaming cautious consumer spending for a decline in sales. Shares of rivals Leslie’s (LESL) and Pentair (PNR) dropped as well.

Oil and gold futures fell, while the yield on the 10-year Treasury note was little changed. The U.S. dollar advanced on the euro, pound, and yen. Most major cryptocurrencies traded higher.

Read more on Investopedia

Spirit AeroSystems (SPR) shares dropped more than 3% in pre-market trading Tuesday after reported late Monday that Boeing (BA) changed the terms of its all-cash offer to reacquire the parts supplier for a mostly stock deal valuing the aerostructure supplier at about $35 per share.

If accepted, the offer of $35 per share would represent a premium of about 6% to Spirit’s $33.07 Monday close and implies 22% upside from the stock’s Feb. 29, close, the day prior to the takeover discussions becoming public.

In addition, the deal will require Spirit to spin off some of its manufacturing plants to Boeing’s European rival Airbus (EADSY), reported. Discussions have faced headwinds in recent months after Airbus threatened to block the deal if it involved Boeing building any of its newest aircraft.

Boeing has said that buying back Spirit, a former subsidiary it sold in 2005, would improve the safety and quality in its plants, after leveling blame at the airframe manufacturer for supplying incomplete or faulty parts to its factories. The embattled plane maker has come under intense scrutiny from federal aviation regulators and lawmakers this year following a door plug of an Alaska Airlines (ALK) 737 Max jet detaching mid-flight in January.

Taking a look at the weekly chart, Spirit AeroSystems shares broke above a multi-year downtrend line in early March after news of Boeing’s potential takeover of the company emerged. 

Since that time, the price initially retraced, but found support from the breakout point and now trades just below the neckline of an inverse head and shoulders pattern, a chart formation that indicates a potential reversal back to the upside. 

Looking ahead, investors may monitor for a volume-backed breakout above the pattern’s neckline at $35. Such a move could mark the beginning of a new uptrend and see the stock climb to around $54 where it would likely encounter overhead resistance from a horizontal line that connects a series of price action stretching back to May 2017.

Read more on Investopedia

Inflation has declined in recent months, and a report due Friday is expected to provide further evidence that price increases are easing.Forecasters expect inflation as measured by the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index slowed down in May, according to a survey of economists by and the . The median forecast calls for PCE prices to have risen 2.6% over the past 12 months, down from 2.7% in April. “Core” inflation, which excludes volatile prices for food and energy, likely slipped to 2.6% from 2.8%, reaching its lowest level since March 2021 and inching towards the Federal Reserve’s goal of a 2% annual rate. 

If those forecasts are correct, it would confirm what a separate report earlier this month on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) showed: Inflation may still be running too hot for the liking of Fed officials and many household budgets, but it’s on the way down. It would also indicate that a flareup of inflation in the first quarter was more of a bump in the road than a serious economic threat. 

Friday’s inflation report is especially notable because officials at the Federal Reserve, tasked with keeping inflation under control, pay closer attention to PCE than CPI when setting their influential fed funds rate, which affects interest rates on mortgages, credit cards, car loans and other kinds of borrowing.More inflation reports in line with expectations could pave the way for the Fed to cut the fed funds rate from its current 23-year high. The Fed has kept the rate high for more than two years to push down inflation by discouraging borrowing and spending.Fed officials have said they need a string of good economic data to gain confidence that inflation is on a sustainable path down before they’ll consider any cuts.

Financial markets are pricing in more than a 60% chance that the first rate cut will happen at the Fed’s September policy committee meeting, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool, which forecasts rate movements based on fed funds futures trading data. 

Friday’s PCE report could be one bit of data pushing them in that direction.“If matched by similarly mild inflation prints in coming months, the Fed should be on track to trim rates for the first time in over four years in September,” Sal Guatieri, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, wrote in a commentary. 

Read more on Investopedia

Paramount Global (PARA) shares rose Monday afternoon as the company announced plans to raise the prices of its Paramount+ streaming service as it navigates a variety of takeover and merger offers that have surrounded Paramount in recent months.

A number of other streaming services have also raised prices over the last year, incorporated ad-supported tiers, and started to negotiate deals to bundle their services, as the industry works to grow subscribers and increase profitability.

The Paramount+ Essential plan will jump by $2 to $8 per month for new subscribers only. The Paramount+ with Showtime plan will rise $1 to $13 per month on August 20 for new customers, and for existing customers in their next billing cycle after September 20, the company said in a statement to Investopedia.

The price of the streamer's "limited commercials" plan will also increase $1 to $8 for current and new subscribers.

The price increases by Paramount follow a similar move by Warner Bros. Discovery's (WBD), which raised prices for its Max streaming service earlier this month, as well as across industries with music streamers such as Spotify (SPOT) also raising prices.

A number of buyers have lined up over the several months to make a variety of offers after it was reported that controlling shareholder Shari Redstone was exploring a sale of the longtime entertainment conglomerate in December.

In April, Paramount reportedly entered "exclusive negotiations" with Skydance, the media company of David Ellison behind recent action hits like "Top Gun: Maverick" and some of the "Mission: Impossible" franchise. Earlier this month, reports emerged that Redstone and National Amusements, the holding company that controls the majority of Paramount shares, had reached an agreement to merge with Skydance, giving it control over Paramount. Just over a week after the report that the deal was reached, Redstone reportedly called off the deal shortly before a committee of Paramount directors was set to vote to approve it.

The company has also seen executive changes in recent months, as CEO Bob Bakish stepped down in April and Paramount created a three-person "Office of the CEO".

Paramount shares gained 1.4% to $10.29 on Monday, but are still down about 30% so far this year.

Read more on Investopedia

Artificial intelligence (AI) chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA) remained in the spotlight Monday as its shares continued falling from the record high reached last Thursday.

Despite little in the way of company-specific market-moving news in recent days, investors may have used a rare moment of broad market sluggishness for profit-taking following the stock’s meteoric rise this year amid the AI boom.

Nvidia shares fell 6.7% to close Monday at $118.11. The stock is down 16% from its all-time intraday high of $140.76 set on Thursday.

Since finding support around the 50-day moving average in April last year, Nvidia shares have tracked sharply higher, with investors viewing any dips as buying opportunities. However, Thursday’s intraday reversal from their all-time high (ATH) created a bearish engulfing pattern, a candlestick formation that warns of a potential downside reversal, especially after a significant price advance.

If Nvidia’s price continues to retrace this week amid a shift in sentiment, investors may keep an eye on chart levels around $119 and $110, both areas where the stock could find support from minor pullbacks over the past three weeks. A failure to hold these key regions could see the shares revisit a horizontal line near $97 that connects several prior record highs.

Separately, Nvidia has inked a deal to roll out its AI technology at data centers owned by Qatari multinational telecommunications giant Ooredoo located in five Middle Eastern countries, the Doha-based company’s CEO told in an interview on Sunday.

While Ooredoo did not disclose the value of the deal, it said it would provide its data center clients in Qatar, Algeria, Tunisia, Oman, Kuwait, and the Maldives with access to Nvidia's AI and graphics processing technology.

"Our business-to-business (B2B) clients, thanks to this agreement, will have access to services that probably their competitors (won't) for another 18 to 24 months," said Ooredoo CEO Aziz Aluthman Fakhroo.

The deal comes at a time when U.S. Officials have tightened export controls on advanced U.S. chips to curb China accessing sophisticated AI technology through the Middle East.

Read more on Investopedia

Micron Technology (MU) is set to report its third-quarter earnings for the 2024 fiscal year after the bell on Wednesday, with investors likely watching for updates on how it stands to gain from growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and its partnership with AI darling Nvidia (NVDA).

Analysts project Micron's revenue to come in at $6.7 billion for the third quarter of fiscal 2024, up from the previous quarter and year-ago period, according to estimates compiled by Visible Alpha.

Net income is expected to be $399.39 million, compared to a loss of $1.9 billion in the fiscal third quarter of 2023. Diluted earnings per share (EPS) could come in at 30 cents, up from a loss of $1.73 per share in the same period a year earlier.

Analysts at J.P. Morgan and Citi indicated they expect Micron to announce stronger-than-expected guidance for the fourth quarter, which could wow investors and drive the stock higher.

J.P. Morgan analysts said they expect "Aug-Qtr EPS will be guided higher versus consensus expectations." The analysts added they anticipate Micron will reaffirm its view that DRAM (Dynamic Random-Access Memory) and NAND storage technology pricing will increase through 2024 into 2025 as strong high-bandwidth memory (HBM) bit shipment and pricing visibility start to extend into 2026.

Citi analysts said they "expect the company to post results and guidance above Consensus given the DRAM upturn and Micron’s increasing AI memory exposure," projecting fourth-quarter revenue guidance to be $8 billion. The analysts also lifted their price target for the "top pick" stock to $175 from $150.

Micron is notably a partner of AI chipmaker Nvidia, providing the company with memory solutions for its AI chips.

The company produces high-bandwidth memory chips used in Nvidia’s AI graphic processing units (GPUs) which positions Micron to share in Nvidia's gains.

J.P. Morgan said that Micron's strong HBM ramp into Nvidia GPUs contributed to their expectations of strong guidance.

Micron shares have gained more than 62% since the start of the year, at $139.01 as of Monday's close.

Read more on Investopedia