Top Stock Movers on Friday
16 minutes ago
Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) shares tumbled to lead losses in the S&P 500. The video game maker delayed the launch of its next high-profile “GTA” game until November 2026.
Block (XYZ) shares also plunged after the payments provider’s third-quarter results missed analysts’ estimates on the top and bottom lines, though it lifted its outlook.
Tesla (TSLA) shares slid after investors approved a pay package for CEO Elon Musk that could be worth $1 trillion if the company and its stock hit ambitious performance goals.
Expedia (EXPE) was the best-performing stock in the S&P 500 Friday afternoon, after the travel booking site posted quarterly earnings that topped analysts’ expectations, with strong bookings from business clients.
Peloton (PTON) shares jumped after the connected fitness company reported better-than-expected quarterly results and gave an upbeat outlook for the holiday season, anticipating that a new product lineup could drive growth.
These Analysts Have a Long-Short Idea for Trading an AI Pullback
1 hr 19 min ago
The boom-bust cycle that has lately powered a pullback in cryptocurrencies and precious metals is coming for AI stocks, according to BCA Research. And they have an idea for how to play it.
BCA’s analysts this week recommended going long Korean and Taiwanese chipmakers while shorting the U.S. hyperscalers—the tech giants Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet (GOOG), Amazon (AMZN), Meta (META), and Oracle (ORCL)—whose massive AI investments they expect will eventually weigh on share prices.
“Capital spending booms rarely end well for investors,” the analysts wrote. “Deploying vast sums quickly often leads to poor capital allocation.”
The five hyperscalers are expected to invest more than $400 billion in infrastructure this year, with much of that used to build data centers and outfit them with the most advanced chips and servers. At times, investors have struggled to stomach the size of those investments, but concerns about overspending haven’t stopped the stocks from soaring.
BCA analysts argue this spending spree is a departure from the investment discipline that has been key to Big Tech’s success over the past decade. They expect misallocated capital will inevitably lead to declines in hyperscalers’ return on equity, which “will depress their equity multiples even if their profit growth remains positive.”
Another cause for concern, according to BCA, is the risk that today’s data centers will be obsolete in short order. BCA expects data center construction to become less expensive in the coming years as experience drives efficiencies. In addition, as more computing capacity is brought online, the value of existing capacity should decline.
“The price of ‘compute’ will drop significantly,” says BCA. That may be good for consumers, but not for the hyperscalers that effectively lease computing power to cloud customers.
Any indication that AI investments aren’t paying off as expected could spell trouble for the hyperscalers’ stocks. Meanwhile, BCA expects Asian semiconductor manufacturers to continue to benefit from aggressive data center investment without the excess supply and capex headwinds that the hyperscalers face. They also note that those chipmakers’ valuations remain reasonable despite a run-up in their stocks this year; in their note, they named Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM), along with SK Hynix and Samsung, which primarily trade overseas.
BCA predicts that its two-pronged trade will succeed over the next 12 months regardless of whether the AI rally persists or falters. Even if the bottom falls out of the AI trade and both hyperscalers and Asian chipmakers decline over the next year, they expect the hyperscalers to fare worse, making for a short trade that’s more profitable than an unprofitable long call on chipmakers.
Another Delay in the Release of ‘GTA 6’ Is Pulling Down Take-Two’s Stock Today
2 hr 28 min ago
Some of the biggest video-game news of the season is about a game that isn’t even expected this year—though it was once.
Shares of Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) on Friday fell 8%, putting it among the S&P 500’s bigger decliners, following last night’s news that the company will postpone the release of one of the industry’s highest-profile games—the sixth installment in the “Grand Theft Auto” series—until November 2026. The company earlier this year said it would push the game back from its original target date, in 2025, to next May.
Take-Two’s Rockstar Games division “will now release Grand Theft Auto VI on November 19, 2026,” Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said in a statement, “and we remain both excited and confident they will deliver an unrivalled blockbuster entertainment experience.”
Chris Delmas / AFP via Getty Images
That news may have overshadowed an upbeat outlook for the fiscal year—set to end March 31—that included improved forecasts for revenue and net loss per share when compared with those offered earlier this year. Bookings for the most recently completed quarter also came in better than Take-Two had earlier indicated.
The company’s stock has risen more than 25% this year, and most analysts expect that to continue despite the latest disappointment. Visible Alpha recently tracked only “buy” ratings, and a mean price target above yesterday’s close.
“The headline from [the latest] results is undoubtedly the further delay of GTA VI,” Jefferies analysts wrote. “We have been here before, and expect any [near-term] weakness to get bought similar to past delays.”
UBS analysts figure that once the marketing machine for the game gets rolling, investors will feel more confident about the stock and business. “Good things come to those who wait,” they wrote.
Block Stock Tumbles on Earnings Misses
3 hr 41 min ago
Shares of Block (XYZ) slumped on Friday after the fintech company’s third-quarter results fell short of Wall Street’s expectations on the top and bottom lines.
Block reported adjusted earnings of 54 cents a share on revenue of $6.11 billion. Both figures came in below analysts’ estimates. The company’s gross profit grew 18% to $2.66 billion. Cash App’s growth accounted for the majority of those gains, while gross profit at payments unit Square increased a more modest 9%.
Block raised its full-year guidance, citing strong trends across the business. The company now expects gross profit of $10.243 billion, up from its prior estimate of $10.17 billion. Block also boosted its forecast for full-year adjusted operating income to $2.056 billion from $2.03 billion.
Nonetheless, investors focused on the misses and rising expenses, including a nearly $70 million increase in general and administrative costs that the company attributed to “an in-person company event.” According to Block, general and administrative expenses would have been roughly flat year-over-year without that event.
Block shares were down about 10% in recent trading. The stock has lost about 25% of its value since the start of the year.
Tesla Shareholders Back Elon Musk’s Big New Pay Package
4 hr 28 min ago
The fate of Tesla—or, at least, the answer to the question of whether its chief Elon Musk stays or walks—may have been settled at today’s shareholder vote.
A preliminary tally on this year’s 14 proposals, which include giving Musk greater control over Tesla (TSLA) as well as a trillion-dollar pay package, was rolling in late Thursday at a shareholder meeting that started after the close of trading. In that vote, the company said, more than 75% of voters moved to approve the proposal.
The crowd assembled for the meeting cheered as the result was announced. A final count will likely be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in a few days.
Taylor Hill / Getty Images
Though shareholders voted with Tesla to approve a past compensation deal for Musk on more than one occasion, the days leading up to today’s shareholder vote were been fraught with tension. The EV-company-with-robotics-and-AI-ambitions made clear its position that it would be lost without Musk at the helm and that the incentives it recommends are necessary to retain him.
“We believe that Elon’s singular vision is vital to navigating this critical inflection point,” Robyn Denholm and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson, members of the special committee of Tesla’s board of directors, wrote in a letter to shareholders.
Counterpoint Global, an investment team within Morgan Stanley Investment Management, as well as the Florida State Board and Schwab Asset Management, said they intend to cast their votes in favor of Musk’s compensation package.
On the other side, major proxy advisory firms Glass Lewis and ISS advised shareholders to vote against the compensation package, citing dilution and a lack of key-person risk mitigation. Norway’s $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund disclosed earlier this week that it voted against the pay package for those reasons and others. The New York State Common Retirement Fund earlier this month said it intends to vote against it, and exhorted others to do the same.
The trillion-dollar vote drew in bettors across prediction markets Polymarket, Kalshi, and Robinhood—all of which overwhelmingly indicated the expectation—at 90% or higher—that Musk’s pay deal will pass.
Shares of Tesla fell about 3% Friday morning, bringing the stock’s year-to-date return to about 7%.
U.S. Stock Futures Point Lower
5 hr 38 min ago
Futures contracts tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 0.2% in premarket trading on Friday.
S&P 500 futures were off 0.4%.
Nasdaq 100 contracts dropped 0.6%.
