Truist cuts Netflix estimates, stays on sidelines into earningsA look ahead at Netflix's (NASDAQ:NFLX)$Netflix(NFLX)$ highly anticipated earnings report has led to newly lowered estimates at Truist Securities, which is staying Neutral on the stock as it evaluates the advertising opportunity ahead.Mobile app download growth - a proxy for gross subscriber additions - decelerated a bit in the second quarter, thanks to slowdowns in the U.S./Canada and Asia Pacific, analyst Matthew Thornton says. And he's in line with his expectations on subscribers (after the company guided to a 2M drop in subs), implying a modest improvement in churn.He's now expecting revenues to come in slightly worse than the rest of the Street, at $7.97B

$SUPER MICRO COMPUTER INC(SMCI)$  Super Micro Computer Is Taking A Breath, The Run-Up Should Continue Super Micro Computer experienced significant growth in Q2'24, playing a central role in the transition to higher capacity computing in the GenAI renaissance. JPMorgan analyst predicts substantial growth in the broader hardware market as AI takes form, presenting an opportunity for SMCI's advanced compute systems. SMCI has plans to expand its production capacity and facilities, aiming to reach a $25 billion annual revenue target and drive significant revenue growth. The company's strong foothold in the AI market, strategic partnerships with companies like Nvidia, and impressive financial performance make it well-positioned for the AI boom. Su

Nasdaq, S&P 500, Dow rise again as Wall Street gets more comfortable with Fed stance $Nasdaq100 Bull 3X ETF(TQQQ)$  Extending momentum that began the previous session, U.S. stocks finished higher again, recovering some of the losses recorded in recent weeks. The upswing over the last couple days came amid signs that Wall Street has become more comfortable with the current path of the Federal Reserve. The Nasdaq Composite (COMP.IND) closed +2.0%, the S&P 500 (SP500) finished +1.6% and the Dow (DJI) ended +1.2%. With strength in tech, Nasdaq climbed 226.02 points to close at 11,689.01. The S&P 500 concluded trading at 4,045.64, an advance of 64.29 on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow rose 387.40 points to end at

Equinix plans ~$74M IBX center in Jakarta Equinix $Equinix(EQIX)$ is planning to establish an ~$74M International Business Exchange data center in Jakarta, Indonesia. Scheduled to open by the second half of 2024, the eight-story facility will be located in Jakarta's Central Business District in close proximity to major internet exchanges. It will provide over 1,600 cabinets and over 5,300 sqm of colocation space when fully built. Through this expansion, Equinix (EQIX) will enable local businesses as well as multinationals with a presence in Indonesia, to access its platform to interconnect the foundational infrastructure to power their businesses. Inclusive of this recent announcement, the digital infrastructure company has 50 major projects that

iPhone 14 pre-order demand is 'robust,' tracking 'slightly ahead' of iPhone 13: WedbushApple's $Apple(AAPL)$ new iPhone 14 became available for pre-order on Friday and investment firm Wedbush Securities said the demand for the new smartphone looks "robust" and is tracking ahead of expectations.Analyst Dan Ives, who has an outperform rating and a $220 price target on Apple (AAPL), noted that the delivery times for many Pro models have now been pushed out to mid-October, with most pre-orders now seeing delivery times between three and four weeks out."So far demand and orders for iPhone 14 are tracking slightly ahead of iPhone 13 and are tracking ahead of our expectations out of the gates," Ives wrote in a note to clien

NIO Q2: The Good, The Bad, And The UglyShares of NIO Inc. (NYSE:NIO) $NIO Inc.(NIO)$jumped after the electric vehicle ("EV") manufacturer submitted its Q2'22 earnings sheet, but they couldn't hold on to all of their gains as investors dug a little more into the company's results. While NIO beat revenue predictions, the EV company missed on earnings due to widening losses related to production setbacks in the second quarter. The outlook for Q3'22 deliveries is good, but headwinds are growing for NIO and the stock. The good: Earnings beat, robust delivery forecast for Q3NIO's second-quarter earnings card was mixed, with revenues beating expectations by a large margin, but widening losses caused the electric vehicle manufactu

New York Fed's Williams expects inflation to fall 'significantly' next year As the Federal Reserve attempts to tamp down consumer prices through its aggressive monetary-tightening policy, inflation is set to come down substantially at some point in 2023 , New York Fed President John Williams said at the SUNY Buffalo State campus Friday. September's Summary of Economic projections showed the median prediction for core PCE inflation, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, will be 4.5% in 2022, 3.1% in 2023 and 2.3% in 2024. That compares with 4.9% in August, which is well above the Fed's 2% objective. The central bank has already lifted the benchmark lending rate by 300 basis points for five straight meetings, though the Federal Open Market Committee sees further increases will be needed to ta

Apple is reportedly moving some MacBook production out of China and into Vietnam Apple$Apple(AAPL)$  is reportedly looking at some options to continue diversifying its manufacturing options, this time looking at moving some production of its MacBook computers out of China and into to Vietnam. The U.S tech giant has asked Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision (OTCPK:HNHPF), to start making MacBooks in Vietnam as soon as May, Nikkei Asia reported, citing sources close to the matter. Earlier this month, it was reported that only high-end versions of the Mac would come to Vietnam, given how extensive and complex the supply chain is for computers. Vietnam already produces some Apple (AAPL) products, including AirPods, iPads and Apple Watch. Cup

Valero, Marathon Petroleum largest buyers in Strategic Petroleum Reserve saleValero Energy's (NYSE:VLO) $Valero(VLO)$marketing and supply company was the largest buyer of crude oil in the latest sale from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve on Monday, acquiring more than 10M barrels.A total of 14 companies were awarded contracts, including Marathon Petroleum (NYSE:MPC)$Marathon(MPC)$, Motiva Enterprises, Exxon Mobil (XOM)$Exxon Mobil(XOM)$and Equinor (EQNR)$Equinor ASA(EQNR)$, each of which won 3M-6M barrels of oil.The latest sale offered up to 45M barrels, but companies bought only ~39M barrels.The companies will take del

Starbucks delivery via DoorDash will be available in all 50 states by March Starbucks $Starbucks(SBUX)$ and DoorDash $DoorDash, Inc.(DASH)$ announced a striking expansion of their partnership with new delivery service launching in Northern California, Texas, Georgia, Florida and other select markets. The Starbucks (SBUX) delivery program via DoorDash (DASH) will expand to additional markets over the coming months, with full nationwide availability anticipated in all 50 states by March. The expansion follows on the heels of positive feedback from a successful pilot in Atlanta, Houston, and Sacramento, and additional market expansion in Seattle, Portland, and New York City last year. Orders placed

$NVIDIA Corp(NVDA)$Memory chip makers are starting to become attractive, even as pessimism risesThe global memory market is weak and getting weaker, with investment firm J.P. Morgan expecting both bit shipments and average selling prices for dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, and NAND to see "meaningful" declines the rest of this year and next.But with all of the pessimism surrounding both markets, the DRAM market is expected to only decline 7% this year and 5% in 2023, with mid-teens growth for the NAND market, leaving the total size of the memory market bigger than it's ever been.And memory chip makers are starting to look attractive, J.P. Morgan said.A team of analysts, led by JJ Park, noted that the memory market

Exxon sells Barnett Shale assets to BKV Corp. in $750M dealPrivately-held BKV Corp. said Friday it purchased natural gas upstream and midstream infrastructure in Texas' Barnett Shale region from Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) $Exxon Mobil(XOM)$for $750M.Depending on future natural gas prices, additional contingent payments may be incurred.BKV said it is acquiring ~160K acres primarily in Tarrant, Johnson and Parker counties, with upstream assets that include low decline wells, as well as 750 miles of gathering pipelines, compression and processing midstream infrastructure.

McDonald's tests new smaller restaurant concept McDonald's Corporation $McDonald's(MCD)$ opened a new small-format test concept in Fort Worth, Texas designed exclusively for to-go orders. The location includes a special drive-thru lane where the orders arrive on a food and beverage conveyor. The small-format restaurant also has a delivery pick-up room for mobile orders and kiosks for new orders. The order-ahead lane at the site deploys location customer tracking through the MCD app that allows employees to begin preparing customers’ orders when they are close to the restaurant. The new McDonald's (MCD) has several parking spaces dedicated to curbside order pickup and designated spots for delivery drivers. "As our customers’ needs continue to c

DocuSign and Coupa are downgraded The near term will be challenging for both DocuSign and Coupa Software , according to an RBC analyst, who cut his ratings on the software stocks Monday.RBC’s Rishi Jaluria now rates DocuSign , the e-signature company, at Sector Perform, down from Outperform. He cut his call on Coupa, a provider of spending-management software, to Underperform from Sector Perform.Jaluria has a $65 price target on DocuSign’s stock, down from $80. He cut his target for Coupa to $55 from $65. Shares of DocuSign (ticker: DOCU) and Coupa (COUP) fell 4% to $63.36 and $65.08, respectively, in premarket trading Monday.The analyst said he likes the technology offered by both companies but that DocuSign has a long path ahead of it as it seeks to turn itself around following a se

Disney looks to claim Thanksgiving box-office crown again with Marvel, 'Strange World' A few new films are looking to perk up the long Thanksgiving-weekend box office, but as in years past, it looks to be Disney's $Walt Disney(DIS)$ weekend either way. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (DIS) is likely to remain on top of the list, with a typical drop suggesting the superhero hit will crest the $40M mark for the very long weekend. The Marvel film's first two weeks have resulted in domestic grosses of $294.2M with a worldwide total of $552.2M so far. But Disney is rolling out a new studio animated film as well, adventure/sci-fi/comedy Strange World, to capture the family audience, and it has an outside chance of topping the long weekend's gross cha

ConocoPhillips to buy 30% stake in Sempra's Port Arthur LNG projectConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) $ConocoPhillips(COP)$said Thursday it entered into a heads of agreement with Sempra (NYSE:SRE) $Sempra(SRE)$to acquire a 30% direct equity holding in the Port Arthur LNG project and joint participation in other related energy infrastructure in southeast Texas and the Pacific Coast of Mexico; financial terms are not disclosed.The HOA also anticipates an agreement for a 20-year liquefied natural gas tolling arrangement for ~5M tons/year at Phase 1 of the Port Arthur LNG project under development, and Conoco (COP) would have the option to acquire LNG offtake and equity ownership from future contemplated LNG trains at t

Communications stocks stumble into second half, bracing for slowdownIt's not clear whether the economy is headed for recession - or if it's already entered one - but the mood in the Communication Services sector is marked by lowered expectations for the second half of 2022, after what seemed like a nascent recovery from pandemic disruptions ran headlong into high inflation and continued macro pressures. And that follows a first half where stocks overall suffered their worst first half in more than 50 years.In the case of the sector's biggest names - the ad duopoly of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) $Alphabet(GOOG)$(GOOGL) and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) $Meta Platforms, Inc.(META)$- that pressure is reflected in

Semiconductors rise as STMicro, GlobalFoundries, Taiwan Semiconductor ease worriesSemiconductor stocks finished largely higher on Friday on reports that STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM) $STMicroelectronics NV(STM)$and GlobalFoundries (NASDAQ:GFS)$GLOBALFOUNDRIES Inc.(GFS)$were set to announce plans next week to build a new chip factory in France and Taiwan Semiconductor (NYSE:TSM) $Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing(TSM)$Bullishreported strong monthly results.Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, noted that the new plant from STMicroelectronics (STM) and GlobalFoundries (GFS) will use government funds and will be the second project from the European Union’

Famed short seller Jim Chanos: Data center REITs to 're-rate' as interest rates climb Data center REITs are only now starting to "re-rate" against a backdrop of rising interest rates and tightening financial conditions, Jim Chanos, founder and managing partner of Chanos & Company, said Wednesday at the CNBC Delivering Alpha Conference in New York City. Chanos reiterated that data center REITs are one of his big shorts as a number of those capital-intensive firms have unattractive fundamentals ranging from negative free cash flows or leveraged balance sheets. Recall the legendary short seller said towards the end of June that data center REITs were his "big short." He provided a gloomy assessment on Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR), in particular, which has seen its shares fall 43% year-