The Nasdaq closed sharply higher on Monday as Tesla surged on optimism around artificial intelligence and investors awaited inflation data due later this week.
Market Snapshot
The S&P 500 climbed 0.67% to end at 4,487.46 points. The Nasdaq gained 1.14% at 13,917.89 points, while Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.25% to 34,663.72 points.
Market Movers
Tesla (TSLA) rose 10.1% to $273.58 after shares of the electric-vehicle maker were upgraded to Buy from Hold by Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas, who also boosted the stock’s price target to a Wall Street high of $400 a share, up from $250. The upgrade centers on artificial intelligence with Jonas writing that Tesla “has developed an advanced supercomputing architecture that pushes new boundaries in custom silicon and may put Tesla at an asymmetric advantage in a $10 trillion total addressable market.”
Qualcomm (QCOM) jumped 3.9% after the semiconductor company extended an agreement to make modem chips for Apple ‘s iPhones through to 2026.
Disney (DIS) and Charter Communications (CHTR) said they reached an agreement that will restore popular channels including ESPN and ABC to the cable operator’s nearly 15 million subscribers. This draws to a close a blackout that lasted for more than a week. Disney shares gained 1.2%, while Charter stock jumped 3.2%.
Carvana (CVNA) rose 8.2% after S&P Global Ratings upgraded its credit rating on the user-car seller to CCC+ from D.
J.M. Smucker (SJM), the food company famous for jams and jellies, reached an agreement to buy Hostess Brands (TWNK) for about $5.6 billion, or $34.25 a share. The deal represents a roughly 54% premium to the stock’s closing price on Aug. 24, which was the last trading day before the reports about the possibility of a deal. Hostess Brands surged 19.1% to $33.49. Smucker shares dropped 7%.
RTX (RTX), the aerospace and defense company formally known as Raytheon Technologies, dropped 7.9% after lowering its sales guidance due to a “rare condition in powder metal used to manufacture certain engine parts.”
Kenvue (KVUE) was up 3.6% to $22.07. Shares of the company, which sells such products as Band-Aid, Listerine, Neutrogena, and Tylenol, were upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank and the price target was left unchanged at $27.
Meta Platforms (META), the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is working on a new artificial-intelligence system intended to be as powerful as the most advanced model offered by OpenAI, the Wall Street Journal reported. Meta aims for the new AI model to be ready next year, according to the Journal, which cited people familiar with the matter. Meta shares rose 3.3%.
American depositary receipts of Alibaba (BABA) fell 1.5%. Hong-Kong listed shares of Alibaba declined 3% after Daniel Zhang, former chairman of the e-commerce giant, stepped down as chairman and chief executive of its cloud business unit. Alibaba is aiming for a public listing of its cloud unit, the company’s second-largest business by revenue.
Apple (AAPL) shares rose 0.7% a day before the tech giant’s annual fall launch event, dubbed “Wonderlust” this year. The event is expected to focus on the debut of the iPhone 15. The most notable change to the phone likely will be a shift to the widely used USB-C standard port from Apple’s proprietary Lightning connectors.
Alphabet (GOOGL) gained 0.4% as the Department of Justice finally will bring its three-year-old antitrust case against Google to trial beginning Tuesday. The DOJ argues the Alphabet unit has an illegal monopoly in the internet search market.
Market News
Morgan Stanley Upgrades Tesla Stock Rating, Raises Price Target to $400
Major investment bank Morgan Stanley boosted its Tesla stock outlook based on the company’s Dojo supercomputer project. Analyst Adam Jonas raised his TSLA price target 60% to $400 per share and upgraded the rating to Overweight.
Morgan Stanley believes Dojo could add up to $500 billion in enterprise value for Tesla by accelerating robotaxi adoption and software subscriptions. Their updated bull case scenario models TSLA stock reaching $550.
The dramatic upgrade follows Jonas’ 40-page deep dive report on Tesla’s AI and supercomputing capabilities. He highlights that Tesla’s Dojo team has over 250 years of combined hardware and software expertise.
Arm’s IPO Orders Are Already Oversubscribed by 10 Times
Arm Holdings Ltd.’s initial public offering is already oversubscribed by 10 times and bankers plan to stop taking orders by Tuesday afternoon, according to people familiar with the matter.
Arm, controlled by SoftBank Group Corp., will close its order book a day early on Tuesday, but is still planning to price its shares on Wednesday, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. It’s not uncommon for books to close early on an IPO, which often indicates strong demand.
Apple Renews Qualcomm Deal in Sign Its Own Modem Chip Isn’t Ready
Apple Inc. is extending an agreement to get modem semiconductors from Qualcomm Inc. for three more years, a sign that its ambitious effort to design the chips in-house is taking longer than expected. Qualcomm shares surged on the news.
The new pact will cover “smartphone launches in 2024, 2025 and 2026,” Qualcomm said in a statement Monday. The companies’ agreement had been set to end this year, and the latest iPhone — due on Tuesday — was expected to be one of the last to rely on the Qualcomm modem chip.
Oracle Falls After Reporting Slower Growth in Cloud Sales
Oracle Corp. reported cloud sales growth that slowed in the quarter, dimming enthusiasm about the software maker’s expansion efforts in the competitive market. The shares declined about 9% in extended trading.
Cloud revenue, a metric that is closely watched by investors, jumped 30% to $4.6 billion in the period ended Aug. 31. Of that, $1.5 billion came from renting computing power and storage over the internet and $3.1 billion from applications. That cloud growth rate was slower than the 54% jump in the previous quarter.
The Austin, Texas-based company, known for its database software, is focused on expanding its cloud infrastructure business to more forcefully compete with Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google. Investors have been increasingly hopeful that a surge in demand for artificial intelligence products, which need significant computing power, will help Oracle gain share in the market.