Walmart higher, Lowe’s lower after earnings: Morning Buzz

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

1. STOCK NEWS:

• Walmart (WMT) provided a “beat and raise” report for Q3
• Lowe’s (LOW) reported upbeat Q3 results and narrowed its FY24 earnings guidance
• The U.S. Department of Justice will push Google (GOOGL) to sell Chrome and allow sites to opt out of AI features, Bloomberg reports
• Merck (MRK) announced “positive” results from its Phase 3 MK-3475A-D77 trial of a subcutaneous version of Keytruda, Merck’s anti-PD-1 therapy for various cancers
• Apple (AAPL) has started selling Apple News ads directly, Axios reports

2. WALL STREET CALLS:

• Kraft Heinz (KHC) downgraded to Neutral at Piper Sandler
• Aclaris Therapeutics (ACRS) upgraded at Leerink and Jefferies after Biosion deal
• Needham downgraded Blink Charging (BLNK) and ChargePoint (CHPT) to Hold
• Joby Aviation (JOBY) initiated with bullish view at Needham
• Evercore ISI upgraded BioNTech (BNTX) to Outperform

3. AROUND THE WEB:

• Amazon (AMZN) has held talks with several partners for handling specific tasks on the AI-powered Alexa, including Uber (UBER), Ticketmaster (LYV), and Instacart (CART), BI says
• Sony (SONY) is in talks to buy Kadokawa, the company behind popular video game “Elden Ring,” Reuters reports
• Boeing (BA) will lay off more than 2,500 workers in the U.S. states of Washington, Oregon, South Carolina, and Missouri, Reuters says
• Executives with Juniper (JNPR) and HP Enterprises (HPE) have met with an antitrust regulator at the Justice Department last week, urging the agency to not seek to block their merger, Bloomberg says
• U.S. officials are racing to deliver manufacturing grants to Intel (INTC) and others to complete a significant portion of the Chips Act before President Biden leaves office, WSJ reports

4. MOVERS:

• Supermicro (SMCI) increases after filing a compliance plan with Nasdaq
• Symbotic (SYM) higher after reporting Q4 results and providing guidance for Q1
• Apellis (APLS) gains after Astellas (ALPMY) received a Complete Response Letter for Izervay
• Incyte (INCY) lower after announcing it will pause its MRGPRX2 program evaluating chronic spontaneous urticaria and will suspend its MRGPRX4 program evaluating cholestatic pruritus
• Sabre (SABR) falls after Bernstein downgraded the stock to Underperform

5. EARNINGS/GUIDANCE:

• i3 Verticals (IIIV) reported Q4 results, with EPS missing consensus
• Berry Global (BERY) reported Q4 results and provided guidance for FY25
• Jacobs (J) reported Q4 results, with CEO Bob Pragada commenting, “We reached a critical milestone on our strategic shift toward a simpler, higher-value and higher-margin portfolio”
• Amer Sports (AS) reported Q3 results and raised its guidance for FY24
• Kingsoft Cloud (KC) reported Q3 results, with EPS beating consensus

INDEXES:

Near midday, the Dow was down 123.07, or 0.28%, to 43,266.53, the Nasdaq was up 91.78, or 0.49%, to 18,883.59, and the S&P 500 was up 9.11, or 0.15%, to 5,902.73.