Image courtesy of  Several major companies reported quarterly earnings this week, with 3M (NYSE: ), Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: ), and Coursera Inc (NYSE: ) all seeing significant stock price movements following their announcements. As of the time of writing, all three stocks were trading actively on significantly higher-than-average volume. 3M (NYSE: MMM) Stocks See Largest Single-Day Gain in Over 36 Years 3M shares surged 19.02% to $123.05 as of 11:38 AM EDT, marking the company’s largest single-day gain in 36 years. The industrial conglomerate reported  of $6.3 billion, down 0.5% year-over-year, but beat analyst expectations with adjusted  of $1.93, a 39% increase from the previous year. 3M’s GAAP operating income margin improved to 20.3%, while its adjusted operating income margin increased 4.4 percentage points to 21.6%.3M’s new CEO boosted the profit forecast, citing cost cuts and demand recovery as key factors. The company raised its full-year 2024 adjusted EPS guidance to $7.00-$7.30, up from the previous range of $6.80-$7.30. Despite the negative earnings per share over the trailing twelve months, the firm maintained its adjusted total sales growth forecast of -0.25% to +1.75% and returned $786 million to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases in the second quarter. Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) Rises on Q2 Beat, Positive Phase 3 Trial Results Bristol-Myers Squibb stock rose 8.66% to $49.19 as of 11:38 AM EDT, following better-than-expected second-quarter results. The pharmaceutical giant reported revenue of $12.2 billion, up 9% year-over-year, with non-GAAP EPS growing 18% to $2.07. The company’s blood thinner Eliquis saw a […]

Image Source:  Are the biggest technology firms overinvesting in artificial intelligence? Probably. Meta Platforms’ $40 billion in capital spending this year, for example, will be around double what it allocated in 2021. Shareholders have been broadly supportive of that. But what happens if companies give away the results of their investment for free?That’s effectively what CEO Mark Zuckerburg is promising to do. His $1.1 trillion company says that its new AI models – the latest, Llama 3.1, was released on Tuesday – will be given to developers to tweak and freely use, plugging in their own data without having to share it with Meta. That’s a divergence from rivals who are pursuing more proprietary strategies. Microsoft-backed OpenAI, for example, is charging for access to its own technologies.This might sound like a giant involuntary giveaway on the part of the shareholders who effectively fund Meta’s AI investment. The theory, though, is that Meta will end up long-term richer for it. Zuckerberg  that putting Llama into as many hands as possible will speed up the development of new products and tools, and lower associated costs. There’s something to this argument. Having multiple people fooling around with AI will no doubt generate unexpected uses. It should also strike a competitive blow against rivals like OpenAI whose products are effectively paywalled.One encouraging precedent is Android, the smartphone operating system owned by Alphabet. The parent company of Google bought the bones of Android for an estimated $50 million in 2005, a deal a Google executive later […]

Everywhere I look, I see investors proclaiming that “THE” top is in and a bear market is about to unfold.First and foremost, there is NO reason to ever try to call a top.Why?Because doing so doesn’t make you any money. In fact, top callers usually miss out on major market gains by selling way too early.Consider what happened during the last market correction in April 2024. Then, just as now, the top callers came out of the woodwork. The market corrected for two weeks before rallying another 15%. Anyone who sold missed out on these gains. Moreover, there are nearly ZERO signs from real market indicators that THE top is in right now.Consider the last major bear market that unfolded from early 2022 until October 2023. At that time, high-yield credit broke down along with stocks, signaling that a major shift had taken place in the financial system. Today, high-yield credit is near all-time highs. If anything, it is signaling that stocks have sold off TOO MUCH! The same is true for market breadth. Going into the bear market of 2022, breadth peaked before stocks. Today, breadth is near all-time highs. It too is signaling that the selling is overdone for stocks.

Photo Credit:  on  IBM (NYSE: ) recently announced strong results for its second quarter that surpassed analyst estimates driven by a boost in its AI business. IBM’s Financials Revenues for the second quarter grew 2% to $15.8 billion, beating the Street’s estimates of $15.62 billion. Adjusted earnings of $2.43 per share were ahead of the analyst estimates of $2.2 per share.By segment, Software revenue grew 7% to $6.7 billion, ahead of the Street estimates of $6.48 billion. Consulting revenue was down 0.9% to $5.2 billion. Infrastructure revenue was up 0.7% to $3.6 billion. Financing revenues fell 8.3% to $0.2 billion.During the quarter, the company returned $1.5 billion to shareholders in dividends. IBM ended the second quarter with $16 billion in cash and marketable securities, up $2.5 billion from the end of 2023. Debt, including IBM Financing debt of $11.1 billion, totaled $56.5 billion, flat since the end of 2023.Based on the first half results, IBM now expects over $12 billion in free cash flow for the year. It continues to expect revenues to grow in mid-single digits for the full year. Analysts expect IBM to end the year with $63.5 billion in revenue or a 3% growth and a net income of $9.6 billion. IBM’s AI Platform Strategy It has been a year since IBM introduced watsonx and its generative AI strategy to the market and has booked business over $2 billion. The mix is roughly one quarter software and three quarters consulting signings.IBM has infused AI in all its segments from […]

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is soaring today, up 608 points at last look and breaking into positive territory for the week. Should these gains hold, the blue-chip index will mark its fourth-straight weekly win. The S&P 500 Index () and Nasdaq Composite Index (IXIC) are comfortably higher as well, though both are still headed for weekly losses following tech’s massive selloff.This morning’s  met expectations, encouraging investors on their musings of a September interest rate cut, though consumer sentiment hit an eight-month low amid the recent inflation woes.  American Eagle Outfitters Inc (NYSE: ) stock has been closely watched by investors lately, and options bulls are picking up on the trend. So far today, 16,000 calls have been exchanged, seven times the call volume typically seen at this point, compared to just 1,390 puts. Most popular is the weekly 8/2 22- and 23-strike calls. Up 0.3% at $21.26 at last check, the stock has just barely climbed into the black for 2024. Everi Holdings Inc (NYSE: ) is at the top of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) this afternoon, up 41% at $12.88 at last glance, after news that Apollo Global Management will buy both EVRI and International Game Technology (IGT) in for $6.3 billion in cash, as IGT and EVRI were already in the midst of a merger deal. Further removing itself from its May 29, nearly four-year low of $6.37, the equity is now up 14.7% year to date. Medical equipment stock Dexcom Inc (Nasdaq: ) is at the bottom of the Nasdaq […]

US data should give officials more confidence that inflation is heading to 2% and we suspect attention will start focusing on achieving a ‘soft landing’ for the economy. Next week’s FOMC meeting should lay the groundwork for a September rate cut as policy starts shifting from restrictive territory to something more neutral.Image source:  Back on track for rate cuts We have to ask the question: have events already overtaken the Fed? At June’s FOMC meeting, the most interesting aspect was the Fed moving away from a view of three possible rate cuts this year suggesting just one was the most likely path ahead. But given the recent data flows and financial market moves, this may already seem out of date. The Federal Reserve will still leave monetary policy unchanged at next week’s FOMC meeting, but we believe they will use it to offer the clearest hint yet that they’re starting to seriously consider an interest rate cut, most probably at the subsequent September FOMC meeting. Inflation is looking better behaved, the unemployment rate is on the rise and there is growing evidence that consumer spending is cooling. The Fed has been striving for a “soft landing” and if the data allows them to cut, and it is certainly moving in that direction, then we think they will seize the opportunity. Fed funds rate and duration between last hike and first interest rate cut (Click on image to enlarge)Source: Macrobond, ING Inflation is in a better place Regarding inflation, both core CPI and […]