Omnicom to acquire Interpublic, China to investigate Nvidia: Morning Buzz

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

1. STOCK NEWS:

• Omnicom (OMC) agreed to acquire Interpublic Group (IPG) in a stock-for-stock transaction
• China has opened an anti-monopoly probe into Nvidia (NVDA), Bloomberg reports
• Mondelez (MDLZ) has approached Hershey (HSY) to explore a takeover, Bloomberg says
• Dow (DOW) agreed to sell a 40% stake in select Gulf Coast infrastructure assets for $2.4B
• Palantir (PLTR) expanded its contract with U.S. Special Operations Command

2. WALL STREET CALLS:

• BofA (AMD) to Neutral from Buy
• Reddit (RDDT) upgraded at Morgan Stanley, here’s why
• BofA upgraded PayPal (PYPL) to Buy from Neutral
• Barclays upgraded Robinhood (HOOD) to Overweight
• BofA downgraded Capital One (COF) to Neutral after Trump rally

3. AROUND THE WEB:

• Volkswagen (VWAGY) workers walked off their jobs and union leaders threatened to escalate protests if cuts at the carmaker’s brand fail to yield a breakthrough, Bloomberg reports
• UnitedHealth (UNH) CEO tells his employees to not engage with the press, Klippenstein says
• Apple (AAPL) has been hit with a lawsuit over its decision not to implement a system that would have scanned iCloud files for child sexual abuse material, NYT says
• India’s antitrust body asked the Supreme Court to expedite challenges to an investigation of Amazon (AMZN) and Walmart’s (WMT) Flipkart e-commerce platforms, Reuters says
• The U.S. government has approved the export of advanced AI chips to a Microsoft (MSFT) operated facility in the UAE, Axios says

4. MOVERS:

• RealReal (REAL) gains after Wells Fargo upgraded the stock to Overweight
• Satellogic (SATL) increases after expanding its contract with SynMax
• AngioDynamics (ANGO) higher after receiving FDA 510k clearance for NanoKnife System
• Revance (RVNC) lower after amending and restating its merger agreement with Crown Laboratories
• Riot Platform (RIOT) falls after announcing a $500M offering of convertible senior notes

5. EARNINGS/GUIDANCE:

• Barnes & Noble Education (BNED) reported Q2 results, with EPS and revenue lower year-over-year
• NextPlat (NXPL) raised its FY24 revenue guidance
• Porch Group (PRCH) backed its guidance for Q4 and FY25
• Post Holdings (POST) reaffirmed its FY25 adjusted EBITDA view
• Hello Group (MOMO) reported Q3 results, with EPS and revenue lower year-over-year

INDEXES:

Near midday, the Dow was down 0.10%, or 46.73, to 44,595.79, the Nasdaq was down 0.47%, or 92.45, to 19,767.33, and the S&P 500 was down 0.43%, or 25.93, to 6,064.34.