ESPN goes dark on DirecTV, Harris to oppose Nippon-U.S. Steel deal: Morning Buzz

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

1. STOCK NEWS:

• Elliott now owns enough of Southwest (LUV) to call a special meeting, Reuters reports
• U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris intends to voice her opposition to Nippon Steel’s (NPSCY) proposed takeover of U.S. Steel (X), WSJ says
• Disney’s (DIS) ESPN and ABC went dark on Sunday amid a feud with DirecTV (T), (ILMN) claim that the European Commission had no grounds to scrutinize its $8B acquisition of cancer screening start-up GRAIL in 2021
• TPG (TPG) sold its stake in Sixth Street back to its former credit arm, Semafor reports

 2. WALL STREET CALLS:

• Boeing (BA) downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight at Wells Fargo
• Sphere (SPHR) cut to Sell at Benchmark on scalability, profitability concerns
• CME Group (CME) downgraded to Underperform at BofA amid intensifying competition
• Unity (U) upgraded to Overweight at Morgan Stanley
• Bank of America (BAC) and Wells Fargo (WFC) upgraded to Buy as Deutsche Bank shakes up big bank ratings

3. AROUND THE WEB:

• Tesla (TSLA) plans to produce a six-seat variant of its Model Y car in China from late 2025, Reuters says
• About 10,000 hotel workers from Marriott (MAR), Hyatt (H), and Hilton (HIL) hotel properties walked off the job on Labor Day weekend, NY Times says
• Apple (AAPL) plans to use OLED displays in all iPhone models starting in 2025, Nikkei reports
• Blackstone (BX) is set to acquire AirTrunk for $13.5B, FT reports
• Netflix (NFLX) is working to keep its subscribers by improving dubbing and translations for South Korean content, WSJ says

4. MOVERS:

• Vaxcyte (PCVX) gains after reporting data from its Phase 1/2 study of VAX-31
• Shoals Technologies (SHLS) increases after being granted a favorable initial ruling in the ITC case against Voltage
• Applied Optoelectronics (AAOI) higher after Raymond James upgraded the stock to Outperform
• Dyne Therapeutics (DYN) lower after announcing data from its Phase 1/2 DELIVER trial of DYNE-251
• Recursion (RXRX) falls after announcing data from its Phase 2 SYCAMORE trial of REC994

5. EARNINGS/GUIDANCE:

• Constellation Brands (STZ) narrowed its FY25 guidance as the company said it expects to recognize a non-cash goodwill impairment loss for the Wine and Spirits business of approximately $1.5 to $2.5 billion for its second quarter
• Maxeon Solar (MAXN) reported Q2 results and withdrew its FY24 guidance
• Cigna (CI) reaffirmed its FY24 outlook
• General Mills (GIS) reaffirmed its guidance for FY25
• Hello Group (MOMO) reported Q2 results, with CEO Yan Tang commenting, “Q2 was a good quarter”

INDEXES:

Near midday, the Dow was down 467.71, or 1.13%, to 41,095.37, the Nasdaq was down 439.98, or 2.48%, to 17,273.64, and the S&P 500 was down 83.55, or 1.48%, to 5,564.85.