Costco reports Q4 earnings beat, Cassava to settle SEC charges: Morning Buzz

Get caught up quickly on the top news and calls moving stocks with these five Top Five lists.

1. STOCK NEWS:

• Costco (COST) reported upbeat Q4 earnings but lower-than-expected revenue
• The FDA approved Bristol Myers’ (BMY) Cobenfy capsules for the treatment of schizophrenia
• Cassava Sciences (SAVA) will pay $40M to settle SEC charges for misleading Alzheimer’s claims
• Acadia Healthcare (ACHC) has received a voluntary request for information as well as a grand jury subpoena from the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri related to its admissions, length of stay and billing practices
• Delta (DAL) said that Atlanta operations are moving this morning as the company assesses conditions at other airports in the southeast U.S.

2. WALL STREET CALLS:

• Dollar General (DG) downgraded to Sell at Citi, here’s why
• Udemy (UDMY) downgraded to Underweight at Morgan Stanley
• HP Inc. (HPQ) downgraded to Neutral at BofA on print margin reversion
• Wynn Resorts (WYNN) upgraded to Overweight at Morgan Stanley
• Dell Technologies (DELL) resumed with a Buy at Deutsche Bank

3. AROUND THE WEB:

• IBM’s (IBM) AI isn’t up to the job to meet CEO Arvind Krishna’s commitment to replace roughly 7,800 staff and some of the people who could fix that have been let go, The Register says
• Blackstone (BX) will make a $13.3B investment for an AI data center in northeast England, Reuters reports
• Tencent (TCEHY) is the unidentified shareholder that raised about $206M after selling Chinese brokerage-platform Futu‘s (FUTU) American depositary shares, Bloomberg says
• SoftBank (SFTBY) backed Sorare is facing charges for providing unlicensed gambling services by Britain’s Gambling Commission, FT reports
• LVMH (LVMUY) has entered a deal with the CEO of Moncler (MONRY) to take an up to 22% stake in the investment vehicle that controls the Italian luxury outerwear specialist, FT says

4. MOVERS:

• IonQ (IONQ) higher after signing a $54.5M contract with the United States Air Force Research Lab
• Establishment Labs (ESTA) gains after receiving FDA approval for Motiva SmoothSilk breast implants
• Trip.com (TCOM) increases in New York after Citi opened a ‘positive catalyst watch‘ on the company
• Summit Therapeutics (SMMT) falls after Citi downgraded the stock to Neutral
• Arm Holdings (ARM) lower in New York after Bloomberg reported Intel (INTC) turned away the company’s approach about potentially buying the chipmaker’s product division

5. EARNINGS/GUIDANCE:

• WW (WW) reaffirmed its guidance for FY24
• Taylor Devices (TAYD) reported Q1 results, with EPS and revenue higher year-over-year
• Beyond Air (XAIR) withdrew its guidance for FY25
• BlackBerry (BB) reported Q2 results, with CEO John Giamatteo commenting, “BlackBerry reached a significant milestone on our path to profitability by recording breakeven adjusted EBITDA and non-GAAP EPS”
• Moving iMage (MITQ) reported Q4 results, with EPS lower year-over-year

INDEXES:

Near midday, the Dow was up 395.91, or 0.94%, to 42,571.02, the Nasdaq was down 63.57, or 0.35%, to 18,126.72, and the S&P 500 was up 1.71, or 0.03%, to 5,747.08.