iRobot shares fell 34% 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 0.7%.
Spirit Airlines stock rose 18% after the budget carrier said it expects fourth-quarter revenue at the high end of its initial guidance and that holiday bookings were strong. The stock closed down 7.5% on Thursday after a Journal report said Spirit was planning to explore restructuring options with advisers following 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 12% 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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Shares of Advanced Micro Devices rose 1.6% to $165.19 in premarket trading and Nvidia rose 1.7% to $580.75 after shares of the two chipmakers closed at all-time highs on Thursday. AMD is up 10% this year while Nvidia is up 15%. 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 shares rose 2% to $170.19. 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% 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.
Schlumberger
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rose 1.3% after the oil services provider’s fourth-quarter revenue beat estimates due to strong international growth. SLB also raised its quarterly dividend.
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 7.5% to $9.31.
Trucking company JB Hunt Transport Services said fourth-quarter revenue fell 9% to $3.3 billion, attributing the decline to lower truckload volumes and integrated capacity solutions units and lower revenue per load in truckload units. Analysts had expected revenue of $3.29 billion. Earnings fell to $1.47 from $1.92 a year ago, missing analysts’ expectations of $1.74. The stock rose by 3.6%.
PPG Industries
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It reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of $1.53 per share, beating estimates by 4 cents. Sales rose 4% to $4.35 billion in the period. However, the paints and coatings company’s first-quarter outlook fell short of expectations, with PPG saying it expects economic conditions in the US “will remain weak through the first half of 2024” but demand in China will continue to improve. Shares fell 0.7%. Shares fell 3.1%.
Write to Joe Woelfel at joseph.woelfel@barrons.com