U.S. stocks ended little changed in holiday-shortened trading on Friday, with low volume and conviction as investors watched the start of the seasonal shopping season for signs of consumer resiliency.
Market Snapshot
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 117.12 points, or 0.33%, to 35,390.15, the S&P 500 gained 2.72 points, or 0.06%, at 4,559.34 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 15 points, or 0.11%, at 14,250.85.
Market Movers
Nvidia (NVDA) fell 1.9%. Reuters, citing sources familiar with the matter, reported that the semiconductor company has told customers in China it was delaying the launch of a new artificial-intelligence chip it designed to comply with U.S. export rules until the first quarter of 2024.
Shares of iRobot (IRBT) surged 39% after Reuters reported that Amazon was set to win unconditional antitrust approval in the EU for its acquisition of the smart vacuum company.
Coinbase (COIN) rose 5.8% as Bitcoin prices traded above $38,000 intraday.
Vista Outdoor (VSTO) said its board would be evaluating a takeover offer from firearms maker Colt CZ Group that values the sporting and outdoor-goods company at $30 a share. The offer from Colt comes after Vista and the Czechoslovak Group, a Czech industrial technology company, announced their own merger deal in October. Vista Outdoor shares rose 3.9% to $26.75.
Danish company Novo Nordisk (NVO) said it planned to invest 16 billion Danish kroner ($2.34 billion) starting this year to expand an existing production site in France to meet increasing demand for its obesity treatment Wegovy and diabetes drug Ozempic. U.S.-listed shares of Novo Nordisk rose 2%.
Cruise, the driverless-car unit of General Motors (GM), plans eventually to restart its operations but will do so in just one city. It also will shelve plans for the Origin, a GM-built driverless taxi, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing an email sent to employees Wednesday from Cruise’s new co-president, Mo Elshenawy. GM stock gained 0.3%.
Market News
Alibaba Begins Overhaul to Revive Cloud Arm After Nixing Spinoff
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is taking the first steps toward revamping its cloud business by overhauling its leadership, aiming to revive growth and ride an AI boom after canceling a much-anticipated spinoff of the $11 billion unit.
The company has appointed three new executives to head up major business lines within Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, with two reporting directly to Chief Executive Officer Eddie Wu, a person familiar with the matter said. Key among those is the so-called public cloud — the domestic cloud services arm aimed at enterprise customers in China — which will be led by Liu Weiguang, the person said, asking not to be named as the plans are not public.
Faraday Future Announced Entry Into Middle East
California-based global shared intelligent electric mobility ecosystem company Faraday Future Intelligent Electric (NASDAQ:FFIE) enters into the Middle East market with signing of agreements with Master Investment Group and Siraj.
The company plans to launch a limited-edition model, the FF 91 2.0 Futurist aiFalcon, tailored to the Middle East market, with delivery targeted in 2024.