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F5 Networks Beats 3Q Estimates, Stock Drops 4% in After-Hours

F5 Networks (FFIV) reported stronger-than-expected 3Q results fueled by increased demand for digital solutions. Its adjusted earnings of $2.18 per share surpassed analysts’ expectations of $2.04 and came in higher than its guidance of $1.91-$2.13 per share, the company said on July 27.Adjusted revenues in the third quarter increased 4% to $585.9 million year-over-year and beat Street estimates of $572.9 million.“Large enterprise customers are accelerating their digital transformations, increasing their digital engagement, and boosting capacity and security on customer-facing applications and on platforms that enable employee collaboration,” said F5 CEO François Locoh-Donou. “Demand for solutions to meet these immediate and …read more […]

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AMD Biggest Beneficiary of Intel’s 7nm Delay, Says 5-Star Analyst

Merrill Lynch analyst Vivek Arya said on July 27 that Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is the biggest beneficiary of Intel’s (INTC) 7-nanometer product delay. During its second-quarter earnings release on July 23, the chipmaker announced that the launch of its new processor chips would be postponed by a year.The five-star analyst reiterated his Buy rating on the stock and raised the price target to $77 (11.6% upside potential) from $65, saying that “he has higher confidence in AMD’s medium/longer-term prospects.”Arya pointed out that Intel’s product “delay could accelerate AMD market share gains back toward their historical peaks of 20% for …read more […]

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Intel Engineering Head Leaving After Delay Disaster; Analyst Says Sell Now

Following Intel’s (INTC) disastrous 7nm product delay due to a process “defect mode”, the company has announced a major shakeup to its tech team – including the departure of Chief Engineering Officer Murthy Renduchintala on August 3 2020.According to Intel this will “accelerate product leadership and improve focus and accountability in process technology execution.”The Technology, Systems Architecture and Client Group (TSCG) will be separated into five teams, with leaders reporting directly to CEO Bob Swan: 1. Technology Development – Run by Dr. Ann Kelleher & Dr. Mike Mayberry with the focus on 7nm and 5nm processes. 2. Manufacturing …read more […]

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End game for oil? OPEC prepares for an age of dwindling demand

The coronavirus crisis may have triggered the long-anticipated tipping point in oil demand and it is focusing minds in OPEC. The pandemic drove down daily crude consumption by as much as a third earlier this year, at a time when the rise of electric vehicles and a shift to renewable energy sources were already prompting downward revisions in forecasts for long-term oil demand. It has prompted some officials in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, oil’s most powerful proponent since it was founded 60 years ago, to ask whether this year’s dramatic demand destruction heralds a permanent …read more […]

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Pfizer, BioNTech Rise As Phase 2/3 Covid-19 Vaccine Trial Kicks Off

Pfizer (PFE) and BioNTech SE (BNTX) have announced the start of a global (except for China) Phase 2/3 safety and efficacy clinical study to evaluate a single nucleoside-modified messenger RNA (modRNA) candidate from their BNT162 mRNA-based vaccine program against SARS-CoV-2.Shares in Pfizer rose 2% in Monday’s after-hours trading, while BioNTech was up 6%.After reviewing clinical data and consulting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other global regulators, the two companies have now chosen to continue their BNT162b2 vaccine candidate into the Phase 2/3 study, at a 30 µg dose level in a 2 dose regimen.BNT162b2, which recently …read more […]

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Tencent Offers $2.1 Billion for Chinese Search Giant Sogou

(Bloomberg) — Tencent Holdings Ltd. has offered to buy out and take private search engine Sogou Inc. in a $2.1 billion deal, adding to a slew of Chinese technology giants seeking to delist from U.S. bourses.Shares of the social media heavyweight climbed as much as 4.7% Tuesday, buoyed by speculation it will more closely integrate Sogou’s AI technology with its own services and devices to gain an edge on rivals like TikTok-owner ByteDance Ltd.Tencent has in past years come under pressure from ByteDance and other up-and-coming rivals in the emergent short-video arena. Beijing-based Sogou — whose name translates as “search …read more […]

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The Euro’s Ascent Won’t Knock the Dollar Off Its Perch

(Bloomberg Opinion) — With the euro surging to its highest level for six years, based on the European Central Bank’s trade-weighted index, the doom-mongers predicting the dollar’s demise as the world’s reserve currency of choice have started chorusing once more. As usual, they will be proved wrong.Traders who’ve been speculating that the common currency would benefit from the euro zone’s superior pandemic response, at least when compared with the U.S., have been rewarded for their faith. The euro is up by 4.3% against the dollar this year, and is at its strongest since 2014 versus a basket of the currencies …read more […]

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Gold eyes $2,000 in record run as dollar dips on dovish Fed bets

By 0254 GMT, spot gold was up 1.4% at $1,969.76 per ounce after scaling a fresh peak of $1,980.57 in early Asian trade. U.S. gold futures climbed 1.7% to $1,963.30. One of the major factors for gold’s run is the weakening of the dollar ahead of the Fed meeting, which is expected to reiterate an “accommodative” stance, said Michael McCarthy, chief strategist at CMC Markets. …read more […]

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Hydrogen champion Hyundai races to electric as Tesla takes off

Hyundai Motor Co, an early backer of hydrogen cars, has watched the electric rise of Tesla, including on its home turf. The South Korean company plans to introduce two production lines dedicated to electrics vehicles (EVs), one next year and another in 2024, according to an internal union newsletter seen by Reuters. Euisun Chung, leader of the Hyundai Motor Group conglomerate that also includes Kia Motors, has also held a series of meetings since May with his counterparts at Samsung, LG and SK Group, which make batteries and electronic parts. …read more […]

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Pfizer-BioNTech begin late-stage study of lead COVID-19 vaccine candidate

If the study is successful, the companies could submit the vaccine for regulatory approval as early as October, putting them on track to supply up to 100 million doses by the end of 2020 and 1.3 billion by the end of 2021. Patients are each given two doses of the drugmakers’ vaccine to help boost immunity, so the first 100 million doses would vaccinate around 50 million people. “The initiation of the Phase 2/3 trial is a major step forward in our progress toward providing a potential vaccine to help fight the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,” said Kathrin Jansen, …read more […]

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Tesla hiring in Shanghai as production ramps up

Tesla Inc has launched a hiring spree in Shanghai with plans to bring on designers at its China studio and about 1,000 factory workers, job posts show, as the U.S. electric vehicle maker ramps up production in the world’s biggest auto market. The posts on the Tesla human resources department’s official WeChat account mark the first time the California-based automaker has looked to hire designers in China. Tesla said in January it planned to open a design and research centre in China to make “Chinese-style” cars. …read more […]

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TSMC Among World’s Top 10 Biggest Stocks After $72 Billion Surge

(Bloomberg) — Taiwan’s biggest stock is so hot it added $72 billion in just two days — equal to swallowing Goldman Sachs Group Inc. whole.Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. rose as much as 9.9% in Taipei on Tuesday, extending a stunning rally that’s made it the world’s 10th largest company. The chipmaker is worth more than $410 billion, leapfrogging past U.S. giants Johnson & Johnson and Visa Inc. Daily stock moves capped at 10% in Taiwan’s equity market.It’s difficult to overstate the influence that TSMC wields on Taiwan’s financial markets. Making up almost a third of the local benchmark, it has …read more […]