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VMware Inc. shares rose in late trading Thursday after the company reported better financial performance than it expected. The software company reported third-quarter profit of $443 million, or $1.07 a share, on revenue of $1.98 billion, up from $1.78 billion a year ago. After adjustments for stock-based compensation and other effects, the company claimed profit of $1.34 a share, up from $1.14 in the same period a year ago. Analysts on average expected VMware to report adjusted earnings of $1.28 a share on sales of $1.97 billion, after the software company projected profit of $1.25 to $1.28 a share on sales of $1.93 billion to $1.98 billion. VMware stock rose about 3% in late trading, nearing $124 after closing at $120.11. The shares have gained 52.6% so far this year, while the S&P 500 index has increased 17.3%.

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Nutanix Inc. shares wobbled in the extended session Thursday even after the hyperconvergence company reported results and an outlook that topped Wall Street estimates and confirmed plans to pivot toward a software-based model. Nutanix shares, which had dropped as much as 6% after the earnings release, last rose 1.2% to $33.20 after hours. “While we will be focusing even more intently on selling software going forward, it’s worth noting what the past twelve months would have looked like had we chosen not to bill any pass-through hardware-related transactions,” said Duston Williams, Nutanix chief financial officer, in a statement. Williams said the company would have delivered gross margins north of 80% if it relied on software-only sales. The company reported a fiscal first-quarter loss of $61.5 million, or 39 cents a share, compared with a loss of $140.3 million, or $1.89 a share, in the year-ago period. The company reported an adjusted loss of 16 cents a share. Revenue rose to $275.6 million from $188.6 million in the year-ago period. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had estimated a loss of 26 cents a share on revenue of $266.9 million. Nutanix reported product revenue of $219.1 million, support and services revenue of $56.5 million, and billings of $315.3 million. Analysts had expected product revenue of $206.4 million, support and services revenue of $57.4 million, and a “new orders value” of $307 million, according to FactSet. For the second quarter, Nutanix estimates an adjusted loss of 22 cents to 20 cents a share on revenue of $280 million and $285 million. Analysts expect a loss of 25 cents a share on revenue of $282 million.

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The White House is monitoring cryptocurrencies and Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert is “keeping an eye” on them, spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. Sanders was asked about the currencies, which include bitcoin , the price of which hit $10,000 but moved below that level Thursday. Sanders didn’t elaborate on how the Trump administration is monitoring them.

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Time Inc. said on Thursday that it’s selling its “Sunset” lifestyle brand to Los Angeles-based private equity firm Regent L.P. “Sunset,” a monthly print publication, covers travel, food, wine and home and garden as a lifestyle magazine of the American West. The sale of “Sunset” comes after news magazine publisher Meredith Corp. has proposed a $2.8 billion acquisition of Time Inc. The “Time” and “Sports Illustrated” publisher has been struggling to make up for its declining print business. Time has said it plans to target more than $400 million in cost savings as it sells off assets and focuses on its core brands. Shares of Time are up nearly 4% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 index is up more than 18% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up more than 21%.

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The Senate’s version of the tax cut bill would generate an additional $407.5 billion in revenue over a decade through economic growth — not nearly enough to compensate for its $1.41 trillion cost, the Joint Committee on Taxation said Thursday. The proposal would lift output by 0.8% over a decade, the JCT said.

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average may be surging toward its biggest price gain in a year, but market internal data suggest the buying is being done in a very calm-and-collected way. The NYSE’s Arms Index, a volume-weighted breadth measure that tends to decline below the equilibrium 1.000 level during market rallies, as the proportion of total volume in advancing stocks to volume in declining stocks is usually higher than the proportion of the number of advancing stocks to the number of declining stocks. But in afternoon trade Thursday, with the Dow up 307 points, or 1.3%, to a record high, the Arms is at a very flat 1.020, suggesting there is no sense of urgency to buy stocks that are rising. On the Nasdaq exchange, there is some scrambling to buy gainers, as the Nasdaq Arms Index was down to 0.657. The Nasdaq Composite was up 0.7%.

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The Congressional Budget Office, ahead of the Dec. 9 expiration of the debt ceiling, said the ability to borrow using extraordinary measures will be exhausted and the Treasury will most likely run out of cash by late March or early April 2018.

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Intel Corp. data-center executive Diane Bryant is leaving the chip maker to join Alphabet Inc.’s Google Cloud unit as chief operating officer. Intel said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that Bryant would leave the company as of Dec. 1, after signing an agreement about the use of confidential information and solicitation of former Intel employees. In a blog post, Google Cloud’s lead executive, Diane Greene, welcomed Bryant as COO. “Diane’s strategic acumen, technical knowledge and client focus will prove invaluable as we accelerate the scale and reach of Google Cloud,” Greene wrote. Bryant will receive a separation payment of $4.5 million from Intel along with her retirement benefits, Intel disclosed. Intel shares were trading about 2.8% higher in Thursday’s session, while Alphabet stock was down slightly.

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The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries announced on Thursday that it has agreed, along with its non-member allies, to extend its oil production-cut agreement to the end of 2018. At a press conference in Vienna, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said the decision was “unanimous.” He also said that supply from countries who do not participate in the deal “remains a question mark.” OPEC members and some non-member oil producers, led by Russia, pledged late last year to reduce their crude output by roughly 1.8 million barrels a day from October 2016 levels in an effort to drawdown a global stock overhang and rebalance supply and demand. The deal was put into effect in January and was set to expire in March 2018, so the decision Thursday lengthens the cuts by another nine months. Oil prices continued to trade mostly lower after the news, with January West Texas Intermediate crude down 23 cents, or 0.4%, at $57.07 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange and February Brent crude down 16 cents, or 0.3%, at $62.36 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. In volatile trading ahead of the contract’s expiration at the day’s settlement, January Brent crude rose 29 cents, or 0.5%, to $63.40.

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