Wall Street stocks rose and the Dow scored a second consecutive all-time closing high on Friday, with Tesla and Amazon climbing after fresh U.S. economic data raised expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates modestly in September.
Market Snapshot
The S&P 500 climbed 1.01% to end at 5,648.40 points. The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 1.13% to 17,713.62 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.55% to 41,563.08 points.
Market Movers
Dell Technologies reported second-quarter adjusted earnings of $1.89 a share, beating consensus of $1.70. Revenue at the maker of personal computers rose 9% from a year earlier to $25 billion and topped forecasts. The company said demand in the period for artificial-intelligence servers was $3.2 billion, up 23% sequentially. Backlog was $3.8 billion, with Dell saying its “pipeline has grown to several multiples of our backlog.” Chief Operating Officer Jeff Clark said Dell’s “AI momentum accelerated in Q2, and we’ve seen an increase in the number of enterprise customers buying AI solutions each quarter.” The stock rose 4.3%.
Nvidia gained 1.5%. Shares of the semiconductor company, which makes the chips that are the favored choice for training AI systems, fell 6.4% on Thursday after Nvidia reported a second-quarter beat on earnings and revenue. The shares fell 8.4% over the prior two sessions, their worst two-day stretch since the two days ended July 25.
Intel rose 9.5% following a report from Bloomberg that said the chip maker was discussing various scenarios with investment bankers, including a split of its product-design and manufacturing businesses and what factory projects potentially might be scrapped. The report cited people familiar with the matter. Intel shares have declined 57% this year.
Super Micro Computer slipped 2.5%. The server maker has been the worst stock in the S&P 500 in August. Earlier this week, a short seller alleged it found “glaring accounting red flags,” among other things, at the company. A day later Super Micro said it was delaying the filing of its 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30.
Semiconductor maker Marvell Technology said it expects higher fiscal third-quarter revenue than Wall Street had expected. The company reported second-quarter revenue of $1.27 billion, down 5% from a year earlier. But CEO Matt Murphy said revenue in the period rose 10% sequentially, above the midpoint of management’s range of forecasts, driven by strong demand linked to AI. Shares jumped 9.2%.
CrowdStrike gained 2.1% to $277.28. HSBC analysts upgraded shares of the cybersecurity company to Buy from Hold and raised their target for the price to $339 from $302.
Autodesk, the software company, raised guidance for the fiscal year following better-than-expected second-quarter adjusted profit and revenue. Autodesk said its expects revenue in the fiscal year ending in January to rise about 11%, compared with its previous forecast for growth of 9% to 11%. The company estimated billings would rise 13% to 15%. Autodesk ticked up 0.1%.
Lululemon Athletica, the maker of yoga and workout apparel, cut its fiscal-year outlook. The company said it expects fiscal-year earnings of $13.95 to $14.15 a share on sales of $10.375 billion to $10.475 billion. Lululemon’s previous forecast in June was for earnings of $14.27 to $14.47 a share on sales of $10.7 billion to $10.8 billion. Lululemon reported second-quarter revenue of $2.37 billion, missing forecasts of $2.4 billion, while same-store sales rose 2%, below analysts projections for an increase of 5.9%. Adjusted earnings, however, of $3.15 a share topped estimates of $2.93. The stock rose 0.2%.
MongoDB jumped 18% after the cloud-based database software company boosted its forecast for the third quarter and fiscal year following better-than-expected second-quarter adjusted earnings. Revenue in the second quarter was $478.1 million, up 13% from a year earlier and higher than expectations of $465 million.
Second-quarter earnings and revenue at Ulta Beauty were lower than expected and same-store sales tumbled 1.2%, leading the cosmetics company to reduce its fiscal-year outlook. Ulta said it anticipates fiscal-year sales of between $11 billion and $11.2 billion, below analysts’ estimates of $11.5 billion. The stock dropped 4%.
Elastic sank 26% after the data analytics company issued a revenue forecast for its fiscal second quarter that missed expectations. Elastic expects revenue in the period of $353 million to $355 million, below estimates of $361 million. The company reported a first-quarter GAAP operating loss of $34 million.
Market News
Billionaire Buffett again sells BofA shares worth about $845 mln
Billionaire Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has once again cut its stake in Bank of America with a share sale worth roughly $845 million, a regulatory filing showed on Friday.
The conglomerate run by one of the world's most revered investors has offloaded shares worth more than a combined $6 billion in the second largest U.S. bank in seven rounds of share sales since July.
Berkshire, BofA's top shareholder, disclosed that it had sold roughly 21.1 million shares of the bank between Aug. 28 and Aug. 30.
Goldman Sachs to Lay Off Over 1,300 Workers
Goldman Sachs plans to cut more than 1,300 employees from its global workforce as part of an annual review process to cull the low performers, according to people familiar with the matter.
The bank will likely cut between 3% and 4% of its workforce, the people said. That would affect between 1,300 and 1,800 people, roughly, given that Goldman employed about 45,300 people as of late last year. The cuts are expected across the bank’s various divisions, with some teams impacted more than others.