Category: Stock Market News

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. admitted late Thursday that its exposure to the Spectre chip vulnerability is wider than first thought. AMD shares fell 3.1% to $11.76 after hours. AMD said in a statement it defined additional steps “through a combination of processor microcode updates and OS patches that we will make available” to Ryzen and EPYC customers starting this week. Last week, AMD said there was a near zero risk of its chips being susceptible to the so-called Spectre chip exploit.

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Finisar Corp. said late Thursday co-founder and Chief Executive Jerry Rawls has retired, and that Michael Hurlston, a former Broadcom executive, has been appointed CEO and a director, effectively immediately. Hurlston and Rawls “will work together to ensure a smooth transition,” and Rawls will continue to serve as a director, the company said in a statement. Shares of Finisar rose 2% in late trading after ending the regular session up 2.4%.

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International Business Machines Corp. said late Thursday that it has installed James Kavanaugh as chief financial officer, and former CFO Martin Schroeter will take a new role as senior vice president of global markets. Kavanaugh was senior vice president, finance and operations, the company said. IBM has not yet made any decisions about the executives’ compensation. Both executives will participate in the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call on Jan. 18. IBM stock is down a fraction to $164.04 after hours. Over the past 12 months IBM stock has lost 2%, as the S&P 500 index rose 21%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average , of which IBM is a component, has gained 27%.

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PC makers saw their first holiday quarter rise in shipments in six years, according to the International Data Corp. on Thursday. Fourth-quarter shipments rose 0.7% to 70.58 million units, with the largest gains at HP Inc. with a 8.3% rise, and Apple Inc. , with a 7.3% rise. For the year, however, PC shipments declined 0.2% to 259.53 million units, but HP and Apple led gainers. Gartner, however, showed slightly different numbers with PC shipments declining 2% to 71.56 million units for the fourth quarter, and falling 2.8% to 262.54 million units for the year. HP and Apple also led PC shipment growth for the fourth quarter and the year in the Gartner data.

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U.S. stock-market indexes closed at records on Thursday, driven by a rally in energy and materials sectors, which followed rising oil prices higher. The rally comes a day after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq suffered the first down day of the year on anxieties about appetite for Treasurys from the world’s second-largest economy, China. The S&P 500 gained 19.33 points, or 0.7%, to 2,767.56. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index advanced by 58.21 points, or 0.8%, to 7,211.78. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 205.60 points, or 0.8%, to 25,574.73. Among the best performers on Wall Street, shares of Xerox rose 5.2%, after The Wall Street Journal reported that the company is in talks to potentially do a major deal with Japan’s Fujifilm Holdings Corp.

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Six senators — Republicans Lindsey Graham, Jeff Flake and Cory Gardner, and Democrats Dick Durbin, Michael Bennet and Robert Menendez — said they have reached an agreement on immigration that, they say, addresses border security, the diversity visa lottery, chain migration/family renunification and the Dream Act. The senators say they are working to build support for that deal in Congress.

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Comcast Corp. expects NBC’s advertising revenue for Super Bowl LII to be as much as $500 million. Shares of Comcast were up more than 3% during intraday trade on Thursday. NBC’s head of ad sales, Dan Lovinger, told reporters during a conference call on Thursday that NBC is taking in $5 million per 30-second ad spot during the Super Bowl on Feb. 4, and that a handful of open spots remain, according to media reports. Lovinger said the network expects it to set the single-day record for advertising generated by a single media company. The Super Bowl telecast will be followed by a special broadcast of one of TV’s most popular shows, “This Is Us,” which is expected to have added to demand. Lovinger also said the network is expecting to bring in roughly $900 million in ad revenue from the upcoming Winter Olympics, which would put the total ad revenue for both events at $1.4 billion. Comcast shares have gained more than 18% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 index is up more than 21% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up more than 27%.

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Oil prices settled higher Thursday for a fourth session in a row. Prices got a boost as recent data showed U.S. crude supplies falling for eight straight weeks. Traders awaited the Trump administration’s decision on whether to extend temporary waivers on sanctions against Iran. February West Texas Intermediate crude rose 23 cents, or 0.4%, to settle at $63.80 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That was the highest finish since Dec. 9, according to FactSet data. Natural-gas futures, meanwhile, rose to a six-week high after a record weekly drop in U.S. supplies of the commodity. February natural gas rose 17.8 cents, or 6.1%, to settle at $3.084 per million British thermal units.

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HBO said on Thursday that it has finalized an exclusive three-year deal with investigative journalist Ronan Farrow. The news of a potential deal was first reported in a Hollywood Reporter profile of Farrow, who back in October wrote a detailed account of disgraced former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein’s decades of sexual harassment and abuse. HBO, owned by Time Warner Inc. said that Farrow’s TV deal will begin later this year, but he will continue his reporting for the New Yorker magazine. Farrow will be responsible for developing and fronting a series of investigative documentary specials that will document abuses of power by individuals and institutions. “Ronan Farrow’s extraordinary, revelatory reporting for the New Yorker has helped to propel a string of other investigations, breakthroughs and overdue conversations,” said HBO head of programming Casey Bloys. “We are excited to provide a platform for this dogged reporter to pursue projects that continue to speak truth to power.” Shares of Time Warner have declined more than 2% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 index is up more than 21% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up more than 27%.

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Gold prices climbed Thursday for a second session to settle at their highest since mid-September as weakness in the U.S. dollar prompted the greenback to turn a bit lower for the week. February gold rose $3.20, or 0.2%, to settle at $1,322.50 an ounce–the highest since Sept. 15, according to FactSet data.

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