computers – Page 9

Dividend stocks are dirt cheap. It may be time to back up the truck.

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The stock market always overreacts, and this year it seems as if investors believe dividend stocks have become toxic. But a look at yields on quality dividend stocks relative to the market underlines what may be an excellent opportunity for long-term investors to pursue growth with an income stream that builds up over the years.

The current environment, in which you can get a yield of more than 5% yield on your cash at a bank or lock in a yield of 4.57% on a10-year U.S. Treasury note
BX:TMUBMUSD10Y
or close to 5% on a 20-year Treasury bond
BX:TMUBMUSD20Y
seems to have made some investors forget two things: A stock’s dividend payout can rise over the long term, and so can it is price.

It is never fun to see your portfolio underperform during a broad market swing. And people have a tendency to prefer jumping on a trend hoping to keep riding it, rather than taking advantage of opportunities brought about by price declines. We may be at such a moment for quality dividend stocks, based on their yields relative to that of the benchmark S&P 500
SPX.

Drew Justman of Madison Funds explained during an interview with MarketWatch how he and John Brown, who co-manage the Madison Dividend Income Fund, BHBFX MDMIX and the new Madison Dividend Value ETF
DIVL,
use relative dividend yields as part of their screening process for stocks. He said he has never seen such yields, when compared with that of the broad market, during 20 years of work as a securities analyst and portfolio manager.

Dividend stocks are down

Before diving in, we can illustrate the market’s current loathing of dividend stocks by comparing the performance of the Schwab U.S. Equity ETF
SCHD,
which tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100 Index, with that of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust
SPY.
Let’s look at a total return chart (with dividends reinvested) starting at the end of 2021, since the Federal Reserve started its cycle of interest rate increases in March 2022:

FactSet

The Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100 Index is made up of “high-dividend-yielding stocks in the U.S. with a record of consistently paying dividends, selected for fundamental strength relative to their peers, based on financial ratios,” according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.

The end results for the two ETFs from the end of 2021 through Tuesday are similar. But you can see how the performance pattern has been different, with the dividend stocks holding up well during the stock market’s reaction to the Fed’s move last year, but trailing the market’s recovery as yields on CDs and bonds have become so much more attractive this year. Let’s break down the performance since the end of 2021, this time bringing in the Madison Dividend Income Fund’s Class Y and Class I shares:

Fund	2023 return	2022 return	Return since the end of 2021
SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust	14.9%	-18.2%	-6.0%
Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF	-3.8%	-3.2%	-6.9%
Madison Dividend Income Fund – Class Y	-4.7%	-5.4%	-9.9%
Madison Dividend Income Fund – Class I	-4.7%	-5.3%	-9.7%
Source: FactSet

Dividend stocks held up well during 2022, as the S&P 500 fell more than 18%. But they have been left behind during this year’s rally.

The Madison Dividend Income Fund was established in 1986. The Class Y shares have annual expenses of 0.91% of assets under management and are rated three stars (out of five) within Morningstar’s “Large Value” fund category. The Class I shares have only been available since 2020. They have a lower expense ratio of 0.81% and are distributed through investment advisers or through platforms such as Schwab, which charges a $50 fee to buy Class I shares.

The opportunity — high relative yields

The Madison Dividend Income Fund holds 40 stocks. Justman explained that when he and Brown select stocks for the fund their investible universe begins with the components of the Russell 1000 Index
RUT,
which is made up of the largest 1,000 companies by market capitalization listed on U.S. exchanges. Their first cut narrows the list to about 225 stocks with dividend yields of at least 1.1 times that of the index.

The Madison team calculates a stock’s relative dividend yield by dividing its yield by that of the S&P 500. Let’s do that for the Schwab U.S. Equity ETF
SCHD
(because it tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100 Index) to illustrate the opportunity that Justman highlighted:

Index or ETF	Dividend yield	5-year Avg. yield	10-year Avg. yield	15-year Avg. yield	Relative yield	5-year Avg. relative yield	10-year Avg. relative yield	15-year Avg. relative yield
Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF	3.99%	3.41%	3.20%	3.16%	2.6	2.1	1.8	1.6
S&P 500	1.55%	1.62%	1.79%	1.92%
Source: FactSet

The Schwab U.S. Equity ETF’s relative yield is 2.6 — that is, its dividend yield is 2.6 times that of the S&P 500, which is much higher than the long-term averages going back 15 years. If we went back 20 years, the average relative yield would be 1.7.

Examples of high-quality stocks with high relative dividend yields

After narrowing down the Russell 1000 to about 225 stocks with relative dividend yields of at least 1.1, Justman and Brown cut further to about 80 companies with a long history of raising dividends and with strong balance sheets, before moving further through a deeper analysis to arrive at a portfolio of about 40 stocks.

When asked about oil companies and others that pay fixed quarterly dividends plus variable dividends, he said, “We try to reach out to the company and get an estimate of special dividends and try to factor that in.” Two examples of companies held by the fund that pay variable dividends are ConocoPhillips
COP,
-0.29%
and EOG Resources Inc.
EOG,
+0.52%.

Since the balance-sheet requirement is subjective “almost all fund holdings are investment-grade rated,” Justman said. That refers to credit ratings by Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s Investors Service or Fitch Ratings. He went further, saying about 80% of the fund’s holdings were rated “A-minus or better.” BBB- is the lowest investment-grade rating from S&P. Fidelity breaks down the credit agencies’ ratings hierarchy.

Justman named nine stocks held by the fund as good examples of quality companies with high relative yields to the S&P 500:

Company	Ticker	Dividend yield	Relative yield	2023 return	2022 return	Return since the end of 2021
CME Group Inc. Class A	CME, +0.47%	2.04%	1.3	31%	-23%	1%
Home Depot, Inc.	HD, -0.39%	2.79%	1.8	-3%	-22%	-25%
Lowe’s Cos., Inc.	LOW, +0.27%	2.17%	1.4	3%	-21%	-19%
Morgan Stanley	MS, -1.54%	4.24%	2.7	-3%	-10%	-13%
U.S. Bancorp	USB, -0.25%	5.89%	3.8	-22%	-19%	-37%
Medtronic PLC	MDT, -4.32%	3.62%	2.3	1%	-23%	-22%
Texas Instruments Inc.	TXN, -0.21%	3.30%	2.1	-3%	-10%	-12%
United Parcel Service Inc. Class B	UPS, -0.16%	4.17%	2.7	-8%	-16%	-23%
Union Pacific Corp.	UNP, +1.52%	2.52%	1.6	2%	-16%	-15%
Source: FactSet

Click on the tickers for more about each company, fund or index.

Click here for Tomi Kilgore’s detailed guide to the wealth of information available for free on the MarketWatch quote page.

Now let’s see how these companies have grown their dividend payouts over the past five years. Leaving the companies in the same order, here are compound annual growth rates (CAGR) for dividends.

Before showing this next set of data, let’s work through one example among the nine stocks:

If you had purchased shares of Home Depot Inc.
HD,
-0.39%
five years ago, you would have paid $193.70 a share if you went in at the close on Oct. 10, 2018. At that time, the company’s quarterly dividend was $1.03 cents a share, for an annual dividend rate of $4.12, which made for a then-current yield of 2.13%.
If you had held your shares of Home Depot for five years through Tuesday, your quarterly dividend would have increased to $2.09 a share, for a current annual payout of $8.36. The company’s dividend has increased at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.2% over the past five years. In comparison, the S&P 500’s weighted dividend rate has increased at a CAGR of 6.24% over the past five years, according to FactSet.
That annual payout rate of $8.36 would make for a current dividend yield of 2.79% for a new investor who went in at Tuesday’s closing price of $299.22. But if you had not reinvested, the dividend yield on your five-year-old shares (based on what you would have paid for them) would be 4.32%. And your share price would have risen 54%. And if you had reinvested your dividends, your total return for the five years would have been 75%, slightly ahead of the 74% return for the S&P 500 SPX during that period.

Home Depot hasn’t been the best dividend grower among the nine stocks named by Justman, but it is a good example of how an investor can build income over the long term, while also enjoying capital appreciation.

Here’s the dividend CAGR comparison for the nine stocks:

Company	Ticker	Five-year dividend CAGR	Dividend yield on shares purchased five years ago	Dividend yield five years ago	Current dividend yield	Five-year price change	Five-year total return
CME Group Inc. Class A	CME, +0.47%	9.46%	2.44%	1.55%	2.04%	20%	42%
Home Depot Inc.	HD, -0.39%	15.20%	4.32%	2.13%	2.79%	54%	75%
Lowe’s Cos, Inc.	LOW, +0.27%	18.04%	4.14%	1.81%	2.17%	91%	109%
Morgan Stanley	MS, -1.54%	23.16%	7.62%	2.69%	4.24%	80%	108%
U.S. Bancorp	USB, -0.25%	5.34%	3.60%	2.78%	5.89%	-39%	-26%
Medtronic PLC	MDT, -4.32%	6.65%	2.90%	2.10%	3.62%	-20%	-9%
Texas Instruments Inc.	TXN, -0.21%	11.04%	5.24%	3.10%	3.30%	59%	82%
United Parcel Service Inc. Class B	UPS, -0.16%	12.23%	5.56%	3.12%	4.17%	33%	56%
Union Pacific Corp.	UNP, +1.52%	10.20%	3.37%	2.07%	2.52%	34%	49%
Source: FactSet

This isn’t to say that Justman and Brown have held all of these stocks over the past five years. In fact, Lowe’s Cos.
LOW,
+0.27%
was added to the portfolio this year, as was United Parcel Service Inc.
UPS,
-0.16%.
But for most of these companies, dividends have compounded at relatively high rates.

When asked to name an example of a stock the fund had sold, Justman said he and Brown decided to part ways with Verizon Communications Inc.
VZ,
-0.94%
last year, “as we became concerned about its fundamental competitive position in its industry.”

Summing up the scene for dividend stocks, Justman said, “It seems this year the market is treating dividend stocks as fixed-income instruments. We think that is a short-term issue and that this is a great opportunity.”

Don’t miss: How to tell if it is worth avoiding taxes with a municipal-bond ETF

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October 11, 2023

U.S. stocks end higher after blockbuster September jobs report as S&P 500 snaps 4-week losing streak

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U.S. stocks closed higher Friday, with the S&P 500 eking out a modest weekly gain, as investors assessed a monthly jobs report that showed both a blockbuster surge in jobs created along with a slowdown in wage pressures.

How stock indexes traded

The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA
rose 288.01 points, or 0.9%, to close at 33,407.58.
The S&P 500
SPX
gained 50.31 points, or 1.2%, to finish at 4,308.50.
The Nasdaq Composite
COMP
climbed 211.51 points, or 1.6%, to end at 13,431.34.

For the week, the Dow slipped 0.3% while the S&P 500 edged up 0.5% and the Nasdaq gained 1.6%. The Dow fell for a third straight week, while the S&P 500 snapped a four-week losing streak and the Nasdaq saw back-to-back weekly gains, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

What drove markets

U.S. stocks climbed Friday, after reversing course from their slide earlier in the session as investors parsed a U.S. employment report that was stronger than forecast.

“Wages slowed down,” said José Torres, senior economist at Interactive Brokers, in a phone interview Friday. “That was a great development” as the Federal Reserve aims to bring down inflation through monetary tightening.

Investors have worried that a hot labor market will keep wage growth elevated, adding to inflationary pressures that could see the Fed keep interest rates higher for longer or potentially hike its benchmark rate one more time this year.

A report Friday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed the U.S. economy created 336,000 jobs in September, far surpassing economists’ expectations for 170,000 new jobs. Also, the report said job gains in August and July were revised higher.

See: Jobs report shows big 336,000 gain in hiring in September. Labor market still hot.

But other details from the report were slightly more favorable in terms of monetary policy concerns.

For example, average hourly wages rose a mild 0.2% in September, bringing the 12-month rate of change through September to 4.2%, a slower pace than the prior month’s year-over-year rate of 4.3%.

“Even though the headline number was 2.5 times what Wall Street had anticipated, the more important detail below the surface was that wage inflation actually cooled,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA, during a phone interview with MarketWatch.

Renaissance Macro Research’s Neil Dutta said in a note that the jobs report was consistent with a soft landing for the economy and the Fed’s objective to lower the inflation rate back to 2%.

Also see: Why another Fed rate hike this year ‘still a close call’ after jobs report, according to JPMorgan’s David Kelly

“The strong labor market gives credence to the base case still being a soft landing,” said Yung-Yu Ma, chief investment officer at BMO Wealth Management, in a phone interview Friday. But that soft-landing narrative is “somewhat fragile and data dependent,” he said.

See: U.S. stocks stage a surprising rally on Friday. But can the party last?

Investors will be watching for data scheduled to be released next week on September inflation from the consumer-price index and producer-price index.

Meanwhile, economists from Goldman Sachs Group said in a note Friday that “the continued rebalancing of the labor market” is consistent with their expectation that the Fed is done raising rates this year, despite senior Fed officials projecting another hike in their latest batch of forecasts, released last month.

Federal-funds-futures traders are expecting the Fed will keep its benchmark rate at the current range of 5.25% to 5.5% at its policy meetings in November and December, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.

“I’m of the belief that the Fed will not hike again this year,” BMO’s Ma said. “I don’t think it needs to.”

Meanwhile, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note
BX:TMUBMUSD10Y
climbed 6.8 basis points to 4.783%, rising for five straight weeks, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Rising Treasury yields, particularly on the long end of the yield curve, have been blamed for a selloff in stocks over the past couple months. But the S&P 500 is now up so far in October, with a small gain of 0.5%, according to FactSet data.

Companies in focus

Pioneer Natural Resources Co.
PXD,
+10.45%
shares jumped 10.5% following a report in The Wall Street Journal that Exxon Mobil is closing in on a deal to buy the Texan shale driller for about $60 billion. Exxon Mobil
XOM,
-1.67%
shares declined 1.7% on the news.
Levi Strauss & Co.
LEVI,
-0.83%
shares fell 0.8% after the retailer late Thursday cut its outlook for the full year and its executives noted a “continued softness in the wholesale channel, primarily in the U.S.”
Tesla
TSLA,
+0.18%
edged up 0.2% after the automobile maker cut the price of its Model 3 cars from $40,240 to $38,990 and dropped the cost of its model Y electric vehicles from $50,990 to $45,990 in the U.S.
Koninklijke Philips‘
PHG,
-7.20%
shares dropped 7.2% after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration called for more testing of its recalled sleep and respiratory devices, following concerns about foam used in millions of recalled products.

Steve Goldstein contributed to this report.

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October 6, 2023

Amazon, Microsoft Cloud Services Face UK Competition Probe

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By Michael Susin

The U.K.’s communications regulator has referred the cloud market to the country’s competition watchdog for an investigation, alleging that certain features by market leaders Amazon and Microsoft could limit competition.

The Office of Communications regulator said Thursday that a market study found that high fees for transferring data, committed spend discounts and technical restrictions could make it difficult for customers to switch cloud provider or to use multiple providers.

“Some U.K. businesses have told us they’re concerned about it being too difficult to switch or mix and match cloud provider, and it’s not clear that competition is working well. So, we’re referring the market to the [Competition and Markets Authority] for further scrutiny, to make sure business customers continue to benefit from cloud services,” Ofcom’s director responsible for the market study, Fergal Farragher, said.

The regulator said Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft had a combined market share in the U.K. of 70% to 80% in 2022.

The CMA will now start an independent investigation to decide whether there is an impact on competition.

Neither Amazon nor Microsoft were immediately available for comment.

Write to Michael Susin at michael.susin@wsj.com

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October 5, 2023

These 20 stocks in the S&P 500 are expected to soar after rising interest rates have pushed down valuations

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Two things investors can be sure about: Nothing lasts forever and the stock market always overreacts. The spiking of yields on long-term U.S. Treasury securities has been breathtaking, and it has led to remarkable declines for some sectors and possible bargains for contrarian investors who can commit for the long term.

First we will show how the sectors of the S&P 500

have performed. Then we will look at price-to-earnings valuations for the sectors and compare them to long-term averages. Then we will screen the entire index for companies trading below their long-term forward P/E valuation averages and narrow the list to companies most favored by analysts.

Here are total returns, with dividends reinvested, for the 11 sectors of the S&P 500, with broad indexes below. The sectors are sorted by ascending total returns this year through Monday.

Sector or index	2023 return	2022 return	Return since end of 2021	1 week return	1 month return
Utilities	-18.4%	1.6%	-17.2%	-11.1%	-9.6%
Real Estate	-7.1%	-26.1%	-31.4%	-3.0%	-8.8%
Consumer Staples	-5.4%	-0.6%	-6.0%	-2.2%	-4.4%
Healthcare	-4.2%	-2.0%	-6.1%	-1.7%	-3.3%
Financials	-2.5%	-10.5%	-12.7%	-2.5%	-4.7%
Materials	1.3%	-12.3%	-11.2%	-1.9%	-7.0%
Industrials	3.5%	-5.5%	-2.1%	-1.8%	-7.3%
Energy	4.0%	65.7%	72.4%	-1.9%	-1.4%
Consumer Discretionary	27.0%	-37.0%	-20.0%	-0.6%	-5.2%
Information Technology	36.5%	-28.2%	-2.0%	0.8%	-5.9%
Communication Services	42.5%	-39.9%	-14.3%	1.1%	-1.3%

S&P 500	13.1%	-18.1%	-7.4%	-1.1%	-4.9%
DJ Industrial Average	2.5%	-6.9%	-4.5%	-1.7%	-4.0%
Nasdaq Composite Index COMP	28.0%	-32.5%	-13.7%	0.3%	-5.1%
Nasdaq-100 Index	36.5%	-32.4%	-7.7%	0.5%	-4.2%
Source: FactSet

Returns for 2022 are also included, along with those since the end of 2021. Last year’s weakest sector, communications services, has been this year’s strongest performer. This sector includes Alphabet Inc.
GOOGL
and Meta Platforms Inc.
META,
which have returned 52% and 155% this year, respectively, but are still down since the end of 2021. To the right are returns for the past week and month through Monday.

On Monday, the S&P 500 Utilities sector had its worst one-day performance since 2020, with a 4.7% decline. Investors were reacting to the jump in long-term interest rates.

Here is a link to the U.S. Treasury Department’s summary of the daily yield curve across maturities for Treasury securities.

The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes

jumped 10 basis points in only one day to 4.69% on Monday. A month earlier the 10-year yield was only 4.27%. Also on Monday, the yield on 20-year Treasury bonds

rose to 5.00% from 4.92% on Friday. It was up from 4.56% a month earlier.

Market Extra: Bond investors feel the heat as popular fixed-income ETF suffers lowest close since 2007

The Treasury yield curve is still inverted, with 3-month T-bills

yielding 5.62% on Monday, but that was up only slightly from a month earlier. An inverted yield curve has traditionally signaled that bond investors expect a recession within a year and a lowering of interest rates by the Federal Reserve. Demand for bonds pushes their prices down. But the reverse has happened over recent days, with the selling of longer-term Treasury securities pushing yields up rapidly.

Another way to illustrate the phenomenon is to look at how the Federal Reserve has shifted the U.S. money supply. Odeon Capital analyst Dick Bove wrote in a note to clients on Friday that “the Federal Reserve has not deviated from its policy to defeat inflation by tightening monetary policy,” as it has shrunk its balance sheet (mostly Treasury securities) to $8.1 trillion from $9 trillion in March 2022. He added: “The M2 money supply was $21.8 trillion in March 2022; today it is $20.8 trillion. You cannot get tighter than these numbers indicate.”

Then on Tuesday, Bove illustrated the Fed’s tightening and the movement of the 10-year yield with two charts:

Odeon Capital Group, Bloomberg

Bove said he believes the bond market has gotten it wrong, with the inverted yield curve reflecting expectations of rate cuts next year. If he is correct, investors can expect longer-term yields to keep shooting up and a normalization of the yield curve.

This has set up a brutal environment for utility stocks, which are typically desired by investors who are seeking dividend income. In a market in which you can receive a yield of 5.5% with little risk over the short term, and in which you can lock in a long-term yield of about 5%, why take a risk in the stock market? And if you believe that the core inflation rate of 3.7% makes a 5% yield seem paltry, keep in mind that not all investors think the same way. Many worry less about the inflation rate because large components of official inflation calculations, such as home prices and car prices, don’t affect everyone every year.

We cannot know when this current selloff of longer-term bonds will end, or how much of an effect it will have on the stock market. But sharp declines in the stock market can set up attractive price points for investors looking to go in for the long haul.

Screening for lower valuations and high ratings

A combination of rising earnings estimates and price declines could shed light on potential buying opportunities, based on forward price-to-earnings ratios.

Let’s look at the sectors again, in the same order, this time to show their forward P/E ratios, based on weighted rolling 12-month consensus estimates for earnings per share among analysts polled by FactSet:

Sector or index	Current P/E to 5-year average	Current P/E to 10-year average	Current P/E to 15-year average	Forward P/E	5-year average P/E	10-year average P/E	15-year average P/E
Utilities	82%	86%	95%	14.99	18.30	17.40	15.82
Real Estate	76%	80%	81%	15.19	19.86	18.89	18.72
Consumer Staples	93%	96%	105%	18.61	19.92	19.30	17.64
Healthcare	103%	104%	115%	16.99	16.46	16.34	14.72
Financials	88%	92%	97%	12.90	14.65	14.08	13.26
Materials	100%	103%	111%	16.91	16.98	16.42	15.27
Industrials	88%	96%	105%	17.38	19.84	18.16	16.56
Energy	106%	63%	73%	11.78	11.17	18.80	16.23
Consumer Discretionary	79%	95%	109%	24.09	30.41	25.39	22.10
Information Technology	109%	130%	146%	24.20	22.17	18.55	16.54
Communication Services	86%	86%	94%	16.41	19.09	19.00	17.43

S&P 500	94%	101%	112%	17.94	19.01	17.76	16.04
DJ Industrial Average	93%	98%	107%	16.25	17.49	16.54	15.17
Nasdaq Composite Index	92%	102%	102%	24.62	26.71	24.18	24.18
Nasdaq-100 Index	97%	110%	126%	24.40	25.23	22.14	19.43

There is a limit to how many columns we can show in the table. The S&P 500’s forward P/E ratio is now 17.94, compared with 16.79 at the end of 2022 and 21.53 at the end of 2021. The benchmark index’s P/E is above its 10- and 15-year average levels but below the five-year average.

If we compare the current sector P/E numbers to 5-, 10- and 15-year averages, we can see that the current levels are below all three averages for four sectors: utilities, real estate, financials and communications services. The first three face obvious difficulties as they adjust to the rising-rate environment, while the real-estate sector reels from continuing low usage rates for office buildings, from the change in behavior brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Your own opinions, along with the pricing for some sectors, might drive some investment choices.

A broader screen of the S&P 500 might point to companies for you to research further.

We narrowed the S&P 500 as follows:

Current forward P/E below 5-, 10- and 15-year average valuations. For stocks with negative earnings-per-share estimates for the next 12 months, there is no forward P/E ratio so they were excluded. For stocks listed for less than 15 years, we required at least a 5-year average P/E for comparison. This brought the list down to 138 companies.
“Buy” or equivalent ratings from at least two-thirds of analysts: 41 companies.

Here are the 20 companies that passed the screen, for which analysts’ price targets imply the highest upside potential over the next 12 months.

There is too much data for one table, so first we will show the P/E information:

Company	Ticker	Current P/E to 5-year average	Current P/E to 10-year average	Current P/E to 15-year average
SolarEdge Technologies Inc.	SEDG	89%	N/A	N/A
AES Corp.	AES	66%	75%	90%
Insulet Corp.	PODD	18%	N/A	N/A
United Airlines Holdings Inc.	UAL	42%	50%	N/A
Alaska Air Group Inc.	ALK	51%	57%	N/A
Tapestry Inc.	TPR	39%	49%	70%
Albemarle Corp.	ALB	39%	50%	73%
Delta Air Lines Inc.	DAL	60%	63%	21%
Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc.	ARE	59%	68%	N/A
Las Vegas Sands Corp.	LVS	96%	78%	53%
Paycom Software Inc.	PAYC	61%	N/A	N/A
PayPal Holdings Inc.	PYPL	33%	N/A	N/A
SBA Communications Corp. Class A	SBAC	27%	N/A	N/A
Advanced Micro Devices Inc.	AMD	58%	39%	N/A
LKQ Corp.	LKQ	92%	44%	78%
Charles Schwab Corp.	SCHW	75%	54%	73%
PulteGroup Inc.	PHM	94%	47%	N/A
Lamb Weston Holdings Inc.	LW	71%	N/A	N/A
News Corp Class A	NWSA	93%	73%	N/A
CVS Health Corp.	CVS	75%	61%	67%
Source: FactSet

Click on the tickers for more about each company or index.

Click here for Tomi Kilgore’s detailed guide to the wealth of information available for free on the MarketWatch quote page.

News Corp
NWSA
is on the list. The company owns Dow Jones, which in turn owns MarketWatch.

Here’s the list again, with ratings and consensus price-target information:

Company	Ticker	Share “buy” ratings	Oct. 2 price	Consensus price target	Implied 12-month upside potential
SolarEdge Technologies Inc.	SEDG	74%	$122.56	$268.77	119%
AES Corp.	AES	79%	$14.16	$25.60	81%
Insulet Corp.	PODD	68%	$165.04	$279.00	69%
United Airlines Holdings Inc.	UAL	71%	$41.62	$69.52	67%
Alaska Air Group Inc.	ALK	87%	$36.83	$61.31	66%
Tapestry Inc.	TPR	75%	$28.58	$46.21	62%
Albemarle Corp.	ALB	81%	$162.41	$259.95	60%
Delta Air Lines Inc.	DAL	95%	$36.45	$58.11	59%
Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc.	ARE	100%	$98.18	$149.45	52%
Las Vegas Sands Corp.	LVS	72%	$45.70	$68.15	49%
Paycom Software Inc.	PAYC	77%	$260.04	$384.89	48%
PayPal Holdings Inc.	PYPL	69%	$58.56	$86.38	48%
SBA Communications Corp. Class A	SBAC	68%	$198.24	$276.69	40%
Advanced Micro Devices Inc.	AMD	74%	$103.27	$143.07	39%
LKQ Corp.	LKQ	82%	$49.13	$67.13	37%
Charles Schwab Corp.	SCHW	77%	$53.55	$72.67	36%
PulteGroup Inc.	PHM	81%	$73.22	$98.60	35%
Lamb Weston Holdings Inc.	LW	100%	$92.23	$123.50	34%
News Corp Class A	NWSA	78%	$20.00	$26.42	32%
CVS Health Corp.	CVS	77%	$69.69	$90.88	30%
Source: FactSet

A year may actually be a short period for a long-term investor, but 12-month price targets are the norm for analysts working for brokerage companies.

Don’t miss: This fund shows that industry expertise can help you make a lot of money in the stock market

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October 3, 2023

Tesla, Rivian, Discover, Sphere Entertainment, Nvidia, and More Stock Market Movers

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Updated Oct. 2, 2023 12:18 pm ET / Original Oct. 2, 2023 4:43 am ET

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October 2, 2023

Apple says it will fix app software problems blamed for making iPhone 15 models too hot to handle

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Apple Inc. is blaming a software bug and other issues tied to popular apps such as Instagram and Uber for causing its recently released iPhone 15 models to heat up and spark complaints about becoming too hot to handle.

The Cupertino, Calif., company
AAPL,
+0.30%
said Saturday that it is working on an update to the iOS17 system that powers the iPhone 15 lineup to prevent the devices from becoming uncomfortably hot and is working with apps that are running in ways “causing them to overload the system.”

Instagram, owned by Meta Platforms
META,
-1.23%,
modified its social media app earlier this week to prevent it from heating up the device on the latest iPhone operating system.

Read: The Magnificent Seven could be considered the messy seven after a ‘meh’ third quarter

Uber
UBER,
-0.33%
and other apps such as the video game Asphalt 9 are still in the process of rolling out their updates, Apple said. It didn’t specify a timeline for when its own software fix would be issued but said no safety issues should prevent iPhone 15 owners from using their devices while awaiting the update.

“We have identified a few conditions which can cause iPhone to run warmer than expected,” Apple in a short statement provided to The Associated Press after media reports detailed overheating complaints that are peppering online message boards.

The Wall Street Journal amplified the worries in a story citing the overheating problem in its own testing of the new iPhones, which went on sale a week ago.

Read: Here’s what Apple’s iPhone 15 says about the world

It’s not unusual for new iPhones to get uncomfortably warm during the first few days of use or when they are being restored with backup information stored in the cloud — issues that Apple already flags for users. The devices also can get hot when using apps such as video games and augmented reality technology that require a lot of processing power, but the heating issues with the iPhone 15 models have gone beyond those typical situations.

In its acknowledgement, Apple stressed that the trouble isn’t related to the sleek titanium casing that houses the high-end iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max instead of the stainless steel used on older smartphones.

Apple also dismissed speculation that the overheating problem in the new models might be tied to a shift from its proprietary Lightning charging cable to the more widely used USB-C port that allowed it to comply with a mandate issued by European regulators.

Although Apple expressed confidence that the overheating issue can be quickly fixed with the upcoming software updates, the problem still could dampen sales of its marquee product at time when the company has faced three consecutive quarters of year-over-year declines in overall sales.

The downturn has affected iPhone sales, which fell by a combined 4% in the nine months covered by Apple’s past three fiscal quarters compared with a year earlier.

Apple is trying to pump up its sales in part by raising the starting price for its top-of-the-line iPhone 15 Pro Max to $1,200, an increase of $100, or 9%, from last year’s comparable model.

Investor worries about Apple’s uncharacteristic sales funk already have wiped out more than $300 billion in shareholder wealth since the company’s market value closed at $3 trillion for the first time in late June.

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September 30, 2023

SmileDirectClub’s stock plummets 85% after Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing

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SmileDirectClub Inc. shares plummeted in the extended session Friday after the company said it had voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as founders seek to recapitalize the teeth-straightening business.

SmileDirectClub shares SDC, which had been halted while up 0.9% in after-hours trading pending news, promptly dropped as much as 85% when trading in the stock reopened.

The…

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September 29, 2023

Nvidia identified as target of French antitrust raid: WSJ

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Nvidia Corp.’s offices in France were the subject of a dawn raid Wednesday by French antitrust regulators, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, which cited sources close to the raid.

Nvidia
NVDA,
+1.46%
is widely recognized by Wall Street as the biggest chipmaker that stands to gain from the current AI frenzy, as data centers that run the AI models need more and more hardware and software to sustain workloads. Shares of the $1.065 trillion company are up 195% year to date.

On Wednesday, the Autorité de la Concurrence, France’s national competition regulator, said it had carried out the raid at “the premises of a company suspected of having implemented anticompetitive practices in the graphics-cards sector,” and refused to comment on “the entity or on the practices in question.”

Nvidia declined to comment to both the Wall Street Journal and MarketWatch.

Nvidia’s stock closed up 1.5% at $430.89 in Thursday trading following the report, while the S&P 500 index
SPX,
+0.59%
gained 0.6%.

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September 28, 2023

GameStop’s stock soars after activist investor Ryan Cohen named CEO

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Shares of GameStop Corp. surged Thursday, after the consumer electronics retailer named Ryan Cohen as it president and chief executive officer, effective immediately.

The move, which wasn’t unexpected, comes a few months after the company fired then-CEO Matthew Furlong, and elected activist investor Ryan Cohen as executive chairman. At that time, Cohen said in a tweet, “Not for long.”

Cohen will relinquish his role as executive chairman when he is appointed chairman.

GameStop’s stock GME shot up 9.9% in premarket trading, putting it on track to open at a three-week high.

Cohen, who previously founded and was CEO Chewy Inc.
CHWY,
-0.06%,
is the manager of RC Ventures, which in June disclosed a 36.85 million-share, or 12.1% stake in GameStop.

“In connection with his appointment, Mr. Cohen will assume the role of principal executive officer from Mark H. Robinson effective immediately and his responsibilities will include the oversight of all other executive officers, including Mr. Robinson,” the company said in a statement.

The company said Cohen will not receive any compensation for his roles as president, CEO and chairman, and will “continue to engage in various business activities and pursuits outside of the company.”

GameStop’s stock, which was one of the original “meme” stocks, has tumbled 37.2% over the past 12 months, while the S&P 500 index
GME,
+2.21%
has gained 14.9%.

Also read: GameStop and AMC fundamental filings ‘remain concerning,’ analyst says.

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September 28, 2023

Micron, Peloton, GameStop, Workday, Nike, CarMax, and More Stock Market Movers

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Updated Sept. 28, 2023 6:18 am ET / Original Sept. 28, 2023 4:40 am ET

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September 28, 2023

Micron sees nine-figure data-center sales in 2024, but another quarter of negative margins

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Micron Technology Inc. is far from out of the woods yet when it comes to profitability as quarterly results came in better than expected Wednesday, but the memory-chip maker’s chief executive was upbeat about data-center sales in 2024 as AI fever rages on.

While the Boise, Idaho-based chip maker topped expectations for its fiscal fourth quarter, it forecast a loss of $1.14 to $1 a share on revenue of $4.2 billion to $4.6 billion for the fiscal first quarter. Analysts surveyed by FactSet, however, had forecast, on average, a loss of 88 cents a share on revenue of $4.24 billion.

Micron also expects negative gross margins for a fourth consecutive quarter in the fiscal first quarter, between a 6% and 2% loss, which Micron Chief Financial Officer Mark Murphy said on the call assumed no additional inventory write-down because of memory-chip pricing.

Following gross margins of 22.9% reported in the first quarter of fiscal 2023, gross margins swung sharply to negative-31.4% as Micron reported its largest quarterly loss on record in March, writing off more than $1.4 billion in inventory. Those margins improved to negative-16.1% in the third quarter. On Wednesday, those continued to improve sequentially, to negative-9.1% in the fourth quarter.

Additionally, the company said it is still experiencing headwinds from China’s cybersecurity review of the company’s products, which surfaced in March.

Micron
MU,
+0.40%
shares declined nearly 4% after hours Wednesday following a 0.4% rise to close the regular session at $68.21.

On a conference call, Micron Chief Executive Sanjay Mehrotra told analysts he expects revenue from high-bandwidth memory chips designed for data centers “to begin in early 2024,” and that the company is “very much still on track for meaningful revenue, several hundred million dollars in our fiscal year 2024.”

Back in July, Micron and Nvidia Corp.
NVDA,
+1.33%
announced that Nvidia was using Micron’s HBM3 Gen2 high-bandwidth memory 1-beta DRAM chips in its AI data-center products. As the AI frenzy has raged on all year, data centers that must handle the enormous amounts of data and throughput required by AI models like Open AI’s ChatGPT, backed by Microsoft Corp.
MSFT,
+0.21%,
have boosted demand for hardware.

Micron specializes in making DRAM and NAND memory chips. DRAM, or dynamic random access memory, is the type of memory commonly used in PCs and data-center servers, while NAND chips are the flash memory chips used in smaller devices like smartphones and USB drives.

Read: Micron’s stock might be an excellent play for AI investors who want to diversify beyond Nvidia

In the company’s last earnings report, Mehrotra called the bottom in the memory-chip market, but warned that smartphone and PC weakness could cut into AI gains. This time around, the CEO said smartphone and PC markets were “now at normal levels.”

Read: AI will accelerate Micron’s recovery, analyst says

For the fiscal fourth quarter, Micron reported a loss of $1.43 billion, or $1.31 a share, versus net income of $1.49 billion, or $1.35 a share, in the year-ago period.

The adjusted loss, which excludes stock-based-compensation expenses and other items, was $1.07 a share, versus adjusted earnings of $1.45 a share in the year-ago period. Revenue fell to $4.01 billion from $6.64 billion in the year-ago quarter.

Analysts had forecast Micron to report a fourth-quarter loss of $1.15 a share on revenue of $3.95 billion.

Micron shares are up 36.5% year to date, compared with a 32.8% gain by the PHLX Semiconductor Index
SOX,
an 11.3% gain by the S&P 500 index
SPX
and a 25.1% rise in the Nasdaq Composite
COMP.

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September 27, 2023

Hollywood writers strike declared over after boards approve new contract with studios

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LOS ANGELES — Leaders of the screenwriters union declared their nearly five-month-old strike over Tuesday after board members approved a contract agreement with studios, bringing Hollywood at least partly back from a historic halt in production.

The governing boards of the eastern and western branches of the Writers Guild of America and their joint negotiating committee all voted to accept the deal, two days after the tentative agreement was reached with a coalition of Hollywood’s biggest studios, streaming services and production companies. After the vote they declared that the strike would be over and writers would be free to start on scripts at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.

Late-night talk shows — the first to go dark when writers walked out on May 2 — are likely the first shows that will resume. Scripted shows will take longer to return, with actors still on strike and no negotiations yet on the horizon.

The writers still have to vote to ratify the contract themselves in early October, but lifting the strike will allow them to work during that process, the guild told members in an email.

After Tuesday’s board votes, the contracts were released for the first time to the writers, who had not yet been given any details on the deal, which their leaders called “exceptional.”

The three-year agreement includes significant wins in the main areas writers had fought for — compensation, length of employment, size of staffs and control of artificial intelligence — matching or nearly equaling what they had sought at the outset of the strike.

The union had sought minimum increases in pay and future residual earnings from shows of between 5% and 6%, depending on the position of the writer. The studios had wanted between 2% and 4%. The compromise deal was a raise of between 3.5% and 5%.

The guild also negotiated new residual payments based on the popularity of streaming shows, where writers will get bonuses for being a part of the most popular shows on Netflix
NFLX,
-1.44%,
Max and other services, a proposal studios initially rejected. Many writers on picket lines had complained that they weren’t properly paid for helping create heavily watched properties.

The writers also got the requirement they sought that shows intended to run at least 13 episodes will have at least six writers on staff, with the numbers shifting based on the number of episodes. They did not get their desire for guaranteed staffs of six on shows that had not yet been ordered to series, settling instead for a guaranteed three.

Writers also got a guarantee that staffs on shows in initial development will be employed for at least 10 weeks, and that staffs on shows that go to air will be employed for three weeks per episode.

On artificial intelligence, the writers got the regulation and control of the emerging technology they had sought. Under the contract, raw, AI-generated storylines will not be regarded as “literary material” — a term in their contracts for scripts and other story forms a screenwriter produces. This means they won’t be competing with computers for screen credits. Nor will AI-generated stories be considered “source” material, their contractual language for the novels, video games or other works that writers may adapt into scripts.

Writers have the right under the deal to use AI in their process if the company they are working for agrees and other conditions are met. But companies cannot require a writer to use AI.

Still-striking members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists returned to the picket lines earlier Tuesday for the first time since the writers struck their tentative deal, and they were animated by a new spirit of optimism.

“For a hot second, I really thought that this was going to go on until next year,” said Marissa Cuevas, an actor who has appeared on the TV series “Kung Fu” and “The Big Bang Theory.” “Knowing that at least one of us has gotten a good deal gives a lot of hope that we will also get a good deal.”

Writers’ picket lines had been suspended, but they were encouraged to walk in solidarity with actors, and many were on the lines Tuesday, including “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner, who picketed alongside friend and “ER” actor Noah Wyle as he has throughout the strikes.

“We would never have had the leverage we had if SAG had not gone out,” Weiner said. “They were very brave to do it.”

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the studios in negotiations, chose to deal with the longer-striking writers first, and leaders of SAG-AFTRA said they had received no overtures on resuming talks. That’s likely to change soon.

Actors also voted to authorize their leadership to potentially expand their walkout to include the lucrative videogame market, a step that could put new pressure on Hollywood studios to make a deal with the performers who provide voices and stunts for games.

The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Radio and Television Artists announced the move late Monday, saying that 98% of its members voted to go on strike against videogame companies if ongoing negotiations are not successful. The announcement came ahead of more talks planned for Tuesday.

Acting in videogames can include a variety of roles, from voice performances to motion capture work as well as stunts. Video game actors went on strike in 2016 in a work stoppage that lasted nearly a year.

Some of the same issues are at play in the video game negotiations as in the broader actors strike that has shut down Hollywood for months, including wages, safety measures and protections on the use of artificial intelligence. The companies involved include gaming giants Activision Blizzard
ATVI,
-0.05%,
Electronic Arts
EA,
-1.13%,
Epic Games, Take 2 Productions
TTWO,
-0.99%
as well as Disney
DIS,
-1.19%
and Warner Bros.′
WBD,
+0.28%
videogame divisions.

“It’s time for the videogame companies to stop playing games and get serious about reaching an agreement on this contract,” SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher said in a statement.

Audrey Cooling, a spokesperson for videogame producers, said they are “continuing to negotiate in good faith” and have reached tentative agreements on more than half of the proposals on the table.

So far this year, U.S. consumers have spent $34.9 billion on videogames, consoles and accessories, according to market research group Circana.

The threat of a videogame strike emerged as Hollywood writers were on the verge of getting back to work after months on the picket lines.

The alliance of studios, streaming services and producers has chosen to negotiate only with the writers so far, and has made no overtures yet toward restarting talks with SAG-AFTRA. That will presumably change soon.

SAG-AFTRA leaders have said they will look closely at the writers’ agreement, which includes many of the same issues, but it will not effect their demands.

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September 26, 2023

These 20 growth stocks are worth considering on a pullback, says Citi

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Citi has released a list of 20 large-cap growth stocks that it says present opportunities in the event of a pullback.

“Our call since early summer has been to hold Growth and look to buy on pullbacks,” Citi analyst Scott Chronert said in a note released Monday, adding that Citi has had a tactical preference for cyclicals. “However, on the heels of the strong Cyclicals surge during June and July, and our upwardly revised S&P 500 target of 4600, the messaging has been to buy on pullbacks more broadly,” he wrote.

Citi also notes that the Russell 1000 Growth Index
RLG
has sold off more than 6% from its mid-July high, although two-thirds of the stocks in the index are down 10% or more, with one-third down more than 20%. “This sets up for interesting intermediate to long-term stock selection opportunities,” Chronert said.

The analyst acknowledged that there is still a risk of economic softening ahead, if not a recession. “Yet, the argument that Growth stocks can show fundamental resilience during periods of broader economic weakening is a theme that we have considered for several years now,” he said.

Set against this backdrop, the analyst firm has compiled a tech-heavy list of 20 stocks that have a buy rating from Citi, have at least 75% of market cap assigned to growth, according to Russell, and have experienced a decline of 10% or more from year-to-date highs since March 31. Other common characteristics of the stocks include consensus estimates of free cash flow per share above March 31 levels and free cash flow per share within or above market-implied five-year-forward estimates.

Tech heavyweights Apple Inc.
AAPL,
+0.74%
and NVIDIA Corp.
NVDA,
+1.47%
are on the list, along with Pinterest Inc.
PINS,
-2.47%,
Lam Research Corp.
LRCX,
+0.24%,
Teradata Corp.
TDC,
+0.36%,
Datadog Inc.
DDOG,
+0.09%,
MongoDB Inc.
MDB,
-0.73%,
HubSpot Inc.
HUBS,
+0.18%
and KLA Corp.
KLAC,
+0.79%.
The other stocks cited by Citi are Lockheed Martin Corp.
LMT,
-0.18%,
DraftKings Inc.
DKNG,
-1.44%,
Las Vegas Sands Corp.
LVS,
-0.98%,
Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc.
CMG,
-0.85%,
Netflix Inc.
NFLX,
+1.31%,
TKO Group Holdings Inc.
TKO,
-1.93%,
Rockwell Automation Inc.
ROK,
+1.09%
and Paycom Software Inc.
PAYC,
+0.45%,
and healthcare stocks Bruker Corp.
BRKR,
+1.04%,
Insulet Corp.
PODD,
-0.66%
and Intuitive Surgical Inc.
ISRG,
+1.75%.

Shares of Apple, which recently launched its iPhone 15, are down 5.5% in the last three months. Shares of chip maker NVIDIA are up 2.8% over the same period, while Lockheed Martin is down 8.9% and DraftKings is up 8.6%. Las Vegas Sands is down 21.8% and Chipotle is down 8.8%, while Netflix is down 7.8%.

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September 25, 2023

Microsoft’s Revised Activision Deal Addresses Competition Concerns, Says UK Regulator

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By Elena Vardon

Microsoft’s proposals to modify its $75 billion Activision acquisition address the concerns with the U.K. antitrust authority, the regulator said in a provisional decision Friday.

The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority said that the new deal submitted by Microsoft should lessen any harm to competition in cloud gaming.

The CMA said that the restructured transaction–through which Activision would sell its cloud gaming rights to Ubisoft–opens the door to the deal being cleared.

The regulator is consulting on remedies put forward by Microsoft to address residual concerns it has before making a final decision, it said.

The CMA opened a consultation on these remedies which will last until Oct. 6, it added.

Write to Elena Vardon at elena.vardon@wsj.com

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September 22, 2023

By buying Splunk, Cisco is closer to becoming a software company

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With Cisco Systems Inc.’s pending acquisition of Splunk Inc., the networking giant is making another major step toward becoming a software company.

On Thursday, Cisco CSCO said it was buying Splunk SPLK in a deal valued at about $28 billion, or $157 a share in cash, for the cloud-security company. The match had been speculated about for years, and Cisco has been on a buying binge this year, as it seeks to grow with more security and software offerings.

“Together, we will become one of…

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September 21, 2023

Cisco to Buy Cybersecurity Company Splunk in $28 Billion Cash Deal

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Cisco to Buy Cybersecurity Company Splunk in $28 Billion Cash Deal

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September 21, 2023

FedEx, Klaviyo, KB Home, CrowdStrike, and More Stock Market Movers

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Updated Sept. 21, 2023 6:20 am ET / Original Sept. 21, 2023 4:34 am ET

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September 21, 2023

Instacart, Ford, Pinterest, Coty, Dollar General, Intel, and More Stock Market Movers

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Updated Sept. 20, 2023 7:54 am ET / Original Sept. 20, 2023 4:37 am ET

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September 20, 2023

Intel Shares Slip as CFO Warns of Excess Data Center Chip Inventories

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Intel Stock Slips as CFO Warns of Excess Data Center Chip Inventories

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September 19, 2023

Block’s stock has been a laggard lately. Will management shakeup provide a needed jolt?

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Block Inc.’s stock has been a sizable laggard this year, and now it’s losing the leader of a critical business — albeit one that hasn’t necessarily lived up to investor expectations lately.

Alyssa Henry, the head of Block’s
SQ,
-2.99%
Square merchant business, is stepping down after a long tenure with the company, and Jack Dorsey will assume her role while continuing to lead Block on the whole, the company announced in a Monday filing.

The announcement comes as Block shares have declined 18% so far this year, while the S&P 500
SPX
has risen 16%. Other payment-technology stocks, including Shift4 Payments Inc.,
FOUR,
-0.54%
Toast Inc.
TOST,
+1.34%
and even PayPal Holdings Inc.
PYPL,
-1.98%
have logged better year-to-date performances.

Block’s stock closed at its lowest level since April 7, 2020 on Monday, according to Dow Jones Market Data. It was down about 2% in after-hours trading.

The stock is also down 82% from its all-time closing high achieved Aug. 5, 2021.

The performance of the Square merchant business, which includes payment processing and other tools for sellers, has been a sore point for investors recently. Wolfe Research analyst Darrin Peller notes that Block’s second-quarter U.S. gross payment volume (GPV) was up 10% from a year earlier, a four-point spread above Visa Inc.’s
V,
+1.49%
domestic growth. Historically, the spread has been in double digits, he said.

Additionally, while the 12% overall growth in Square’s GPV “continues to imply that Square is a market-share gainer, we note that this growth spread relative to the industry has trended lower and also suggests slightly softer growth trends versus competitors like Clover,” which is part of Fiserv Inc.
FI,
+0.12%,
whose shares are up 20% on the year.

“While some of Square’s success over the years should be attributed to Alyssa’s execution, the company’s more recent performance remains a concern for investors (and we suspect for management, internally),” Peller wrote.

He pointed to “mixed” feedback from investors thus far.

“Bulls argue that this change is positive, indicating that management is taking change seriously,” Peller said. “Further, it’s worth noting that Jack has been more receptive to cost management and other adjustments. Meanwhile, bears are citing that Alyssa was the ‘face’ of Seller and was more receptive to changes in Square’s business model compared to Jack (particularly around outsourced distribution).”

Block, for its part, said in its filing that Henry “provided significant contributions” to the company during a tenure that spanned more than nine years.

UBS downgraded Block shares earlier this month, in part due to concerns about the Square business. Analyst Rayna Kumar said she was concerned about a potential slowdown in gross-profit growth owing to a moderation in consumer spending.

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September 18, 2023

Tag: computers

U.S. stocks end higher after blockbuster September jobs report as S&P 500 snaps 4-week losing streak

How stock indexes traded

What drove markets

Companies in focus

These 20 stocks in the S&P 500 are expected to soar after rising interest rates have pushed down valuations

Screening for lower valuations and high ratings

Tesla, Rivian, Discover, Sphere Entertainment, Nvidia, and More Stock Market Movers

These Stocks Are Moving the Most Today: Tesla, Rivian, Discover, Sphere Entertainment, Nvidia, and More

Micron, Peloton, GameStop, Workday, Nike, CarMax, and More Stock Market Movers

These Stocks Are Moving the Most Today: Micron, Peloton, GameStop, Workday, Nike, CarMax, and More

Micron sees nine-figure data-center sales in 2024, but another quarter of negative margins

Hollywood writers strike declared over after boards approve new contract with studios

Microsoft’s Revised Activision Deal Addresses Competition Concerns, Says UK Regulator

By buying Splunk, Cisco is closer to becoming a software company

Cisco to Buy Cybersecurity Company Splunk in $28 Billion Cash Deal

These Stocks Are Moving the Most Today: FedEx, Klaviyo, KB Home, CrowdStrike, and More

Instacart, Ford, Pinterest, Coty, Dollar General, Intel, and More Stock Market Movers

These Stocks Are Moving the Most Today: Instacart, Ford, Pinterest, Coty, Dollar General, Intel, and More

Intel Shares Slip as CFO Warns of Excess Data Center Chip Inventories

Block’s stock has been a laggard lately. Will management shakeup provide a needed jolt?