Stocks rebound as investors shake off Middle East tensions and focus on earnings

live5 updates

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  Monday, April 15, 2024 9:59am EDT

  Trump Media raises stock price 15% as it prepares to issue millions of shares

  Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT), the parent company of Donald Trump’s social media platform Truth Social, has filed to exercise its stock acquisition rights, meaning the issuance of approximately 21.5 million shares of common stock. ‘s stock price fell by up to 15%.

  Monday’s decline came after the company’s latest regulatory filings showed it had huge losses and faced “greater risks” related to its former president’s relationship with the platform. This was an extension of last week’s decline.

  Trump Media went public on the Nasdaq in late March after merging with special purpose acquisition company Digital World Acquisition Corporation.

  The stock price rose to $66 per share on the first day of trading. The stock was trading at just over $27 per share on Monday.

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  Monday, April 15, 2024 9:33am EDT

  S&P 500 rebounds as investors focus on earnings

  Stocks rose on Monday as concerns about the fallout from Iran’s attack on Israel over the weekend eased. Investors turned their attention to earnings season, with shares of Goldman Sachs (GS) rising more than 5% after the company reported better-than-expected first-quarter profits.

  The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose about 0.8%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI), which ended the week with a big drop, rose about 0.8%. The Nasdaq Composite Index (^NDX), which has a high proportion of high-tech stocks, rose 0.9%.

  Oil prices fell by about 1% in the wake of Iran’s airstrikes, indicating that concerns about supply disruptions have subsided. West Texas Intermediate crude futures (CL=F) hovered around $85 a barrel, while Brent crude oil futures (BZ=F) neared the $90 mark.

  Retail sales rose 0.7% in March, beating economists’ expectations for a 0.4% month-on-month increase.

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  Monday, April 15, 2024 6:58 a.m. EDT

  Salesforce may be exploring a deal

  Multiple reports have surfaced that Salesforce (CRM) is nearing an agreement to acquire data management company Informatica (INFA) for around $11 billion. — So this morning, both tickers are at the top of Yahoo Finance’s “Trending Tickers” page.

  The news is that Salesforce stock is down because the prevailing sentiment is that it’s unclear whether its business is an amazing fit (case in point: it has lower profit margins than Salesforce) .

  The Street also likes that Salesforce has increased its focus on expanding profit margins after dealing with a surprise attack by activist investors last year, in part due to a series of dilutive acquisitions. This is Salesforce’s first major deal since acquiring Slack in 2021 for $28 billion.

  According to reports, Informatica’s stock price has fallen as Salesforce may not offer a premium for the company.

  Knowing Salesforce co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff, I was a little surprised that he could go back to closing deals. He has told me multiple times in recent months that Salesforce remains focused on improving margins. In fact, the company disbanded its M&A team last year.

  Nevertheless, Benioff loves making big deals, and the company has the funds to make them happen. So what do you think?

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  Monday, April 15, 2024 6:49 a.m. (Eastern Daylight Time)

  Focus on Nvidia and Intel

  Citigroup has initiated a “trigger watch” on the stock prices of Nvidia (NVDA) and Intel (INTC) after the semiconductor maker’s stock prices fell last month.

  For Nvidia:

  “Recent supply chain discussions indicate that GPU calendar year 2024/2025 will extend demand visibility into H1 2025. [chip] The unit outlook aligns well with the base case model of 4.3 million/5.2 million. There will be supply chain commentary from major foundries/memory suppliers during the earnings season, and Computex Taiwan, where NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang will give a keynote speech on June 2nd, could be a positive catalyst for stock prices. I predict that. ”

  For Intel:

  “Intel stock is down ~29% year-to-date, and we believe the loss in the foundry business is driving the stock into negative sentiment. Notebook sales were strong in March, up 44% month-over-month. Given this data, we think there is room for upside to consensus estimates.” Intel derives about 31% of its revenue from notebook CPUs, so we expect the stock to rise further. ”

  Further analysis: I took a bit of a contrarian view on Nvidia’s stock price performance in my Sunday Morning Brief newsletter. Learn more about.

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  Monday, April 15, 2024 6:43am EDT

  Keep Connecting the Dots on the Iran/Israel Conflict

  As markets take in the weekend’s news about Iran’s attack on Israel well, it is important to continue to connect the dots on these geopolitical risks.

  For crude oil in particular, Citi believes prices could now reach $100 per barrel.

  I liked the connect-the-dots the Deutsche Bank team did this morning on the oil issue.

  “Most directly, the effects of rising oil prices will be felt around the world, and this comes at a time when there are already concerns about rising inflation in some countries. That presents a dilemma for central banks. What we later found out is that it has the potential to create a.”Russia invades Ukraine in 2022. On the other hand, there is a risk that geopolitical shocks could have a negative impact on growth, pushing the timing of interest rate cuts forward. Indeed, markets were clearly pricing in the possibility of a Fed rate cut on Friday. It rose from 24% to 30% by June, but has since returned to 24% this morning. But if higher oil prices lead to further inflation, with a second round of effects on other prices, that could have implications for monetary policy. Potential impacts can be bidirectional as they must remain in restricted areas longer. ”