Micron reports Q4 beat, Pfizer withdraws Oxbryta: Morning Buzz

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

1. STOCK NEWS:

• Micron (MU) reported better-than-expected Q4 earnings and revenue and provided guidance for Q1
• Accenture (ACN) reported upbeat Q4 results, provided guidance for Q1 and FY25, raised its quarterly dividend 15%, and approved $4B in additional share repurchase authority
• Pfizer (PFE) has voluntarily withdrawn all lots of Oxbryta from worldwide markets and is discontinuing all active voxelotor clinical trials and expanded access programs worldwide
• CarMax (KMX) reported mixed Q2 results, spurring Evercore ISI to remove peer Carvana (CVNA) from its “Tactical Outperform” list
• Lightspeed (LSPD) confirmed it is conducting a strategic review, with a view to “realizing its full potential”

2. WALL STREET CALLS:

• Bernstein upgraded Starbucks (SBUX), says shares not pricing in turnaround
• Jefferies downgraded Hershey (HSY) to Underperform on structural risks
• Sonos (SONO) double downgraded to Underweight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley
• Barclays upgraded New York Community Bancorp (NYCB) to Overweight
• Truist initiated coverage of First Solar (FSLR) and GE Vernova (GEV) with Buy ratings

3. AROUND THE WEB:

• The founder of Masimo (MASI) is demanding $400M in payouts after being sacked as board chair, FT reports
• Spirit AeroSystems (SPR) will begin furloughs in a few weeks if a strike at Boeing (BA) continues, FT says
• Meta (META) has acquired the Theads.com domain name, TechCrunch reports
• Commerzbank (CRZBY) will hold its first meeting with UniCredit (UNCRY) on Friday to “exchange views,” FT says
• Google’s (GOOGL) $2.7B Character.AI deal was primarily to rehire founder Noam Shazeer, WSJ reports

4. MOVERS:

• Bilibili (BILI) higher in New York after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to Buy
• Southwest (LUV) increases after its board of directors authorized a new $2.5B share repurchase program
• Armada Hoffler (AHH) falls after announcing a 9M share offering
• Wave Life Sciences (WVE) lower in New York after announcing a 23.125M share offering
• Shell (SHEL) declines in New York after Oddo BHF downgraded the stock to Neutral

5. EARNINGS/GUIDANCE:

• Concentrix (CNXC) reported Q3 results and cut its guidance for FY24
• Jabil (JBL) reported Q4 results, with EPS and revenue beating consensus
• Intuit (INTU) backed its guidance for Q1 and FY25
• Rave Restaurant (RAVE) reported Q4 results, with EPS and revenue higher year-over-year
• TD Synnex (SNX) reported Q3 results, with CEO Patrick Zammit commenting, “Q3 was a strong quarter, reinforcing our optimism regarding IT market recovery”

INDEXES:

Near midday, the Dow was up 267.94, or 0.64%, to 42,182.69, the Nasdaq was up 107.14, or 0.59%, to 18,189.35, and the S&P 500 was up 23.97, or 0.42%, to 5,746.23.